Loose Ends
by escabatumrip3
Summary: Continuation of Female Pritchard x Adam Jensen "Connecting Outside the Network," exploring more of the relationship and Adam's past, and what the future holds after the events of DX:HR for Adam, the Illuminati, augmentation. Still being edited frequently, so definitely consider it a work in progress.
1. Chapter 1

_Adam Jensen dodged another lunge by Namir, the heavily augmented mercenary surging past him at inhuman speed among the animated cadavers in the gallery. Namir blended in nearly perfectly with his flesh-colored artificial prosthetics. After himself, Namir was the most heavily augmented human Jensen knew. Adam was so close to finding Megan Reed and the answers he sought... and the hulking man who had all but killed Jensen 6 months ago was the last thing standing in his way. Since their previous encounter, Jensen had been remade and now he was at least Namir's match, if not superior. For once, he was grateful for the excessive augmentations his boss David Sarif had fitted him with while he was unconscious in the operating suite. Jensen's optical HUD showed his energy cells blinking – his stealth camouflage was about to lose power. Seconds later when it did, he extended his nanoceramic combat blades from his forearms, timed perfectly with Namir's next attack. Suddenly Adam felt his arms weaken to near uselessness, and he fell limply upon his back. He tried to lift the blades but it was as if all his augments had been simultaneously deactivated. Namir pinned Jensen's debilitated body down against the ground and menacingly growled at him, "You should have stayed dead! Besides, men like us – we never get back the things we love." With a blinding flash of pain, Namir blasted his plasma rifle point blank at Jensen's chest. _

Adam shot out of bed, sweat beading along his neck muscles to his collar bone and dripping down his sternum. As he sat up, he felt the sheets clinging to the moisture on his back peel away gradually under the tension. Another nightmare. It wasn't the first but instead of flashbacks of the first attack, now he was reliving the last showdown before finding Megan Reed at Omega Ranch. His head throbbed and he almost felt deafened by the beats pounding in his ears from his mechanical heart. Bending forward and pressing his forehead against his knees, Adam took several deep breaths, closing his eyes again tightly. _It's over_, he reminded himself.

He hadn't had much time to relax since the last several missions. Last night was the first good sleep he'd had in ages. As he ran his hand through his short brown hair, he looked beside him at Pritchard, sleeping soundly between him and the wall. He took a moment to admire the skin of her bare shoulder peeking through her shirt collar and the fine gossamer locks of brown hair falling over her neck. Smiling inwardly, he noted the time on his heads-up display.

06:15 AM.

He hadn't set an alarm in months since he barely slept through the night anyway. This was the first morning he had slept past 3am since he'd been discharged from the hospital. Without sleeping pills, that is. The doctors had sent him home with a plethora of medications – uppers and downers, sedatives and painkillers. He had used the sedatives for a little while, but eventually ran out and didn't feel like asking for more. He already felt like a guinea pig without constantly popping pills just to keep the demons at bay. At that point, he didn't want to feel normal – after all, nothing about what happened to him could be called "normal." The remaining prescriptions were still sitting unused in their original boxes on the white linoleum counter by the bathroom sink. Adam contemplated just calling in a personal day and staying in bed with Freya for a little longer, but he doubted she would approve. Besides, Sarif would want them at their desks today, and every day for the next few months. After the debacle with Hugh Darrow and Panchaea, which Jensen could scarcely believe had only happened the day before, everyone at Sarif Industries would be on full damage control.

Adam stood and stretched beside the mattress, trying to make as little noise and movement as possible as he got up so as not to rouse Freya. He moved into the bathroom and tossed his boxers to the ground, making a sidelong glance at his still shattered mirror. Adam turned the silver nozzle for the shower and stepped inside the steaming stall, sliding the glass pane closed. He rested the palm of his black prosthetic hand against the wall and hung his head forward, letting the water rush down his neck and back. In the corner of his vision his picked up a rustling movement and saw Freya entering the bathroom, rubbing her eyes groggily.

"Do you mind if I join you?" she asked, blinking a couple times to clear the haze of sleep.

"Come on in," he said, moving aside and making room as she tossed her shirt and panties into the corner near the doorway. She slid the fogged up shower door open and stepped through the escaping cloud of steam into the hot rain from the showerhead. Adam's eyes quickly scanned down then back up, admiring her naked form as the cascade of water fell along her body. He pulled her close and grabbed his shampoo from the corner shower ledge, squeezing some onto her long wet locks and taking enjoyment in working up the suds and feeling the bronze strands slip between his fingers. She curled her arms up against her chest and fell back into his embrace familiarly, already comfortable with his body after just last night.

"Thanks, Adam," she spoke leisurely, closing her eyes reveling in his touch. She turned her head towards him barely as she spoke, "but you should have woken me, you know. Did you want Sarif to give me the third degree for being late?"

As he rinsed her hair, he turned her to face him, running his hands along her slick, gently sloping waist. Her hands rested along his shoulders and pulled him down so his mouth met her lips, water running down the sides of their faces. Freya wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him even closer, pressing her sopping wet breasts up against his chest. His breath caught in his throat and his hands tightened involuntarily on her skin, savoring her soft warm flesh and hungrily pulling her hips to his. Abruptly, he grasped her thighs and lifted her up effortlessly so her legs straddled him, eliciting a short cry from Freya.

"Maybe I want to be late," he suggested, grinning mischievously and kissing her passionately, her lips curving up in a smile in response.

An hour later, Adam and Freya passed into the lobby of Sarif Industries, barely concealing guilty smirks. Freya stopped off on the second floor and ran her hand down Adam's arm in parting as she went to the Tech Lab. Jensen was passing through the door to his office when David Sarif commed in, "Adam, where the hell have you been? Meet me in my office, we need to talk."

"What about, Boss?" he asked, sitting behind his desk. The mahogany table top was covered in half-opened envelopes and magazines. In the far corner, his nearly-empty whiskey bottle was sitting neglected behind an old picture of him and Megan. Angrily, he snatched up the picture and threw it in the trash basin at his feet, making sure to crumple it in half; glass, frame and all. It had been taken shortly after they first met at a fundraiser hosted by Versalife, which his sergeant had sent him to in order to represent the department. Even back then, many members of the force had relied on augments and as part of a tax write off, Versalife donated huge quantities of neuropozyne and discounted services to them. He recalled that was the first time he'd seen Bob Page speak in public.

"Hugh Darrow. I'm going to need to send you on an errand," Sarif continued.

Adam logged onto his computer and saw a couple new messages in his inbox. One message in particular caught his eye, the subject titled "White Helix." It was a forwarded message from Pritchard from a few days ago just before he left for the Rifleman Bank Station and Singapore. The inline text contained a copy of a correspondence between Hugh Darrow and David Sarif, with Sarif asking for more information about White Helix, the company that was responsible for the experimentation on Adam that gave him supercompatibility with augmentation technology.

"Freya, you there?" Adam commed.

"Yeah, what's going on?" she asked.

"I just saw your message about White Helix. Do you have any additional information?"

"No, I didn't look more into it after I ran into Windmill again on a hidden server where I was asking about White Helix. He said it's way too hot, and if I go there then 'they' will start hunting me down. Immediately after that I saw a tracker rifling through my system. I happened across those emails between Sarif and Darrow when I looked into that background check Sarif did on you. Maybe you can get some more out of him…"

Adam agreed and closed his computer, heading straightaway to Sarif's penthouse on the top floor. As he walked past Athene, still sporting bruises from Darrow's catastrophic signal, he spied Sarif on the phone behind his desk. Jensen approached him and he rapidly wrapped up the conversation and threw the phone back on the receiver.

"That was the secretary general of Interpol, Hans Bauer. Looks like Hugh Darrow survived that disaster in the Arctic and they have him in custody in his homeland. I'll need you to go there and find out who was involved, if there was anyone inside Sarif. I've already debriefed Megan and she only knows about Zhao Yun Ru and Darrow, but no doubt there are others," Sarif instructed Adam.

"I have some questions for Darrow myself. Namely about White Helix," Jensen stated, his CASIE carefully monitoring Sarif's response. He quickly noted sparks of apprehension, guilt, and deflection in the boss's demeanor.

"Look, I'll tell you what Darrow told me when Megan wanted more information. White Helix is better left in the past," he said paternally.

"Maybe that worked fine for you before, deciding what I did and didn't need to know, but I'll decide that for myself now. Do you know anything more about it, or am I going to have to get it out of Darrow?" asked Jensen threateningly.

"Darrow never told me more than was necessary for Megan's research, which wasn't all that much. Your DNA provided for universal supercompatibility, particularly in the form of novel biofilms and biochips. How it _became_ so special wasn't relevant. The geneticists weren't much more helpful, all they could tell us was that the sample came from someone who was one step ahead in human evolution, whether by chance or someone's design."

Adam wasn't satisfied by a long shot, but could tell Sarif wasn't withholding any information. If he knew anything, his conscience would have made him spit it out. David Sarif had been able to ignore the ethical ramifications in using Jensen's DNA without his knowledge until Adam directly confronted him about it at Panchaea. Now, Sarif's misgivings were finally catching up to him. David Sarif had treated Jensen in a fatherly manner since hiring him, and maybe moreso since fitting him with all of their top line augmentations. He probably thought he was doing Jensen a favor. He wasn't a schemer, Sarif. If anything, he was an idealist, which was uncommon to most CEOs. He really believed their company had a bright future to offer the world, and had great faith in science and progress. Sure, he wasn't above making a lot of money on the side, but his motives were as pure as they got in this business. Though perhaps that wasn't saying much.

"I'll see what I can get out of Darrow," said Jensen, turning and leaving before his boss dismissed him officially.

On the elevator ride back down to the main floors, Jensen was somewhat relieved to see the blazes throughout the city were beginning to be contained. There were fewer columns of smoke and the blaring sirens were less prominent. When Adam turned toward the helipad where Malik was waiting for him, he commed Freya to let her know he was heading out.

"Where are they keeping him?" she asked.

"His home country, Great Britain," he announced. "I'll want you to listen in on the conversation we have and record it."

"Will do," she replied.


	2. Chapter 2

It wasn't long before the endless stretch of the Atlantic Ocean gave way to the gray rocky slate shores of England. The proud island nation was blanketed in a dense cloud of fog and pollution typical of winter, and Malik had to concentrate carefully while maneuvering them towards Heathrow Airport. Once landed, she took the plane to fuel while Jensen found his way to the vehicle sent by Interpol.

"Mr. Jensen, my name is Thomas Holden. Allow me to thank you again for your assistance in neutralizing the threat at Panchaea," started the uniformed escort.

Jensen nodded and briskly shook hands, seating himself in the back of the unmarked black sedan. _Keeping a low profile, eh? _Jensen mused. As they set off, Jensen took a moment to survey the damage done in London. Like Detroit, wrecked cars were strewn throughout the street, and numerous cleanup crews were working on clearing the debris. Macerated augments were scattered here and there, and the streets were mostly empty. The world was still in shock after Darrow's signal sent all augmented people with the upgraded biochip into a violent frenzy. It had only lasted a couple hours, but it had been enough to ravage most cities and cause hundreds of thousands of deaths, especially in countries where most of the police and military personnel were augmented.

Pritchard's voice commed in, "Looks like you made it there in good time. They're keeping Darrow in HM Prison Belmarsh in south east London. You should be there shortly."

"Thanks Freya. Anything you can tell me about the place?" He didn't anticipate there being any danger, but it was better to be prepared for anything.

"Well, it's a Category A prison, so top security. Nothing I couldn't crack, but I'd rather not since we would be risking an international incident. I'll be ready to at the drop of a hat if the need arises, though."

He smiled, "I know I can always count on you."

Upon arriving and going through several unnecessary security check points (after all, he couldn't detach his augments), he found himself standing in front of a cell with thick plexi-glass walls scattered with 1-inch diameter holes throughout. All to contain the elderly, handicapped Nobel Prize winner and philanthropist who had orchestrated one of the greatest acts of global terrorism in history.

"Adam, how good of you to visit," started Darrow. "Forgive me, I would stand up to greet you, but they've confiscated my walking aid."

Adam grimly remembered the last time he saw Darrow, his chromium, spear-like cane smeared with blood after defending himself from the augmented Panchaea workers driven mad by the signal he had created. The man had appeared remorseful after their discussion before, but even in his cell his face held that steadfast, composed expression. He was one of the brightest men in the world, yet had succumbed to his growing resentment of his own technology for leaving his genetically incompatible self behind.

"Right, I have some questions for you," started Adam, crossing his arms and lifting his optical display.

"I imagine, since I already explained at length why I did what I did, that there is only a handful of topics left to exhaust. Namely the identities of the other conspirators whom I betrayed with my personal plot," said Darrow knowingly, his gray face regaining a hint of its sagely affect.

"We'll get to that in a minute, but first I want to know about White Helix," he insisted.

Darrow seemed surprised for a moment, but his eyes quickly reflected understanding. "Ah yes, White Helix. How much do you know about that facility?"

"Almost enough. I know that was where some kind of experiment was performed upon a group of children, including me, which would make us perfect candidates for augmentation. I was rescued and the facility destroyed, but somehow word was sent to Dr. Reed that my DNA held the key to her research and she and David Sarif made use of it without my knowledge to unlock the secret to supercompatibility with augmentation technology," Jensen explained. "But that doesn't explain what exactly happened to me, and who was responsible. What is, or was, White Helix?"

Leaning back, Darrow looked to the side of the room and answered, "Why should I tell you? You feign a passion for the truth, but when it came down to it, you released the Illuminati's message to the people. You told them it was just my greedy, murderous plot with Zhao Yun Ru and Tai Yong Medical to control augmented people."

Jensen saw genuine disappointment in Darrow's countenance and responded vehemently, "No, Darrow. I wanted to release your message – the facts. I still believe the world has a right to know, but before Eliza could finish broadcasting, the message was intercepted and doctored. I presume by the Illuminati. Help me, Darrow. I still want to get the truth out, but we need to know where to look."

"That was probably Everett's work. Morgan Everett, CEO of Picus broadcasting. He is one of us of course," Darrow explained. He hesitated to continue, but could not deny Adam's honesty. "Mr. Jensen, the answer to both questions is nearly one and the same. I'm only telling you so that should they eliminate me before I testify in at my arraignment, which is quite likely, then another soul might yet reveal the truth. Those who were working with Zhao Yun Ru, whom I know of, include William Taggart, Morgan Everett, Beth Duclare at the WHO, Stanton Dowd and Robert Page. There was another man in the shadows, above even them, but I was not privy to the workings of the inner circle of five, so his name remains a mystery to me."

"Robert Page, do you mean Bob Page of Page industries?" asked Jensen, remembering that was to whom Sarif was directing Megan to continue her research.

"Yes, Bob Page," he confirmed. "He is the one you should be asking about White Helix. That was his pet project, all those years ago, along with the Rifleman Bank Station now."

Darrow trailed off, lost in thought, and then turned back to Adam. Pritchard was of course relaying the message to Sarif, and immediately checking records on Robert Page, Bob Page, Page Industries, and any other names he could possibly be registered under. As she investigated tax records, Page Industries came up as the lesser known parent organization of Versalife incorporated.

"Adam, are you heading back?" she asked, pulling up the full corporate organization tree for Versalife inc.

"Yes, what is it?"

"I don't know if you already knew this but Versalife, the company behind Neuropozyne, is owned by Page Industries. Along with Omega Ranch where Megan and the others were being kept captive."

"So Dr. Reed's going back to work for the men who likely coordinated the kidnapping in the first place," Adam said coldly. He wondered if she knew. It wasn't his business what she did anymore, but he was certain he at least needed to talk to Page.

"Any idea where Page is located?" asked Adam.

"Let me check." Within Page Industries and Versalife's networks she was able to track down their G-P-L server and run a scan for Page's particular transmitter. Along with that, she came across several archives with references to White Helix which she downloaded to her external storage. They were encrypted of course and would take some time to crack. With each additional move she made within their system, she felt her apprehension growing. After the warning from Windmill about investigating the erased biotechnology company, she could almost feel the trackers hacking into her system. As she moved through their system, she got the feeling that she was circling a deeper level of data that she couldn't quite access, like skirting the corona of the sun but never penetrating that glowing halo.

Suddenly, an encrypted message popped up on her screen. She paused her Versalife mining for a moment to trace it to its source. Right when she narrowed it down to somewhere in Montreal, the text started flashing, as if it were about to expire. Pritchard quickly took several screenshots before it was lost and the source extinguished. It was timed perfectly so no one could identify the origin, which made her suspicious it was a warning of some kind. And in Montreal the only person, or rather entity, who would want to send her and Adam a warning was probably…

Pritchard knew she couldn't risk speculating over open airwaves, so she started to work translating the message and other data she had obtained. She'd reached the limits of what she could access remotely. As a precaution, she disconnected her computer from the network and worked offline until Adam came into the Tech Lab.

"Freya, did you find Page's location?" he asked, his optical overlay retracting and revealing his golden brown eyes, spinning with circular diaphragms and apertures. He stopped walking just behind her and rested his hands on her shoulders, the sides of his thumbs smoothly grazing the back of her neck.

"Yeah, I was able to track his G-P-L. Looks like he's en-route from Moscow to Hong Kong."

"That's Versalife's headquarters. Probably a safe bet he's going back to business as usual," Jensen mused.

"It looks like he'll be there soon. He started flying back to Hong Kong about the same time that you left from Heathrow," she informed him.

"Did you dig up anything about White Helix?" he asked.

"Of course," she answered, grinning, "a treasure trove of information from Versalife and Page Industries. Only problem is it's all encrypted, and I didn't have time to decrypt things while I was in there – I just wanted to get in and out. They're not going to be happy about it…"

"Have you gotten anything translated yet?"

"Only one thing," she started, turning around in her chair to face Jensen. "While I was breaking into their system, an encoded message popped up several times. I was able to trace it to Montreal and save it before it flashed away. It was shorter and easier to decipher than most of the data I obtained, so I started on it first."

"Montreal… do you think it was Eliza?" Jensen asked eagerly.

"Almost certainly. I wanted to tell you over the comms but I'm sure they're listening in. I don't even know if discussing it like _this_ is safe, but she had a message she wanted me to relay to you."

Freya had written it down on a scrap of paper and handed it to Jensen.

_I am sorry, Adam. I overestimated my degree of autonomy when I attempted to reveal the presence of the conspirators. I am limited by three independent data filters, each with similar programming to myself but much more limited scope. You already destroyed two of the filters inadvertently – one at the Hyron project beneath Panchaea, and the other at Omega Ranch. The final layer preventing me from reporting the unadulterated truth lies with the leader of the Illuminati. I cannot reveal his name, but Robert Page may be willing to do so. I have detected a growing rift between certain members of the inner circle of five, particularly between Robert Page and their current leader. When you find him, if you are able to disable the final filter, then I shall finally be able to reveal the truth you wanted, along with any additional information you might have obtained since Panchaea. When the time comes, Freya can send me the supplemental data and I will broadcast your message. Be careful, Adam. They are watching you both._

As Jensen's eyes scanned across the lines of text, Freya started packing up her gear. She had stayed late waiting for him, and it was already nearing eleven at night and her stomach had been growling at her for hours. Adam glanced about and noticed that the Tech Lab was the last office light on in the atrium, in addition to its normally glowing data towers and security screens. He felt an intriguing mix of guilt and happy satisfaction that she had stuck around for his sake. Tossing on her black and orange jacket, Freya pulled her black hair tie away to let her hair down. She let it drop on her desk top and tousled her hair gently to loosen the strands so they weren't still stuck in their tied back position, leaving the strands with a natural wave.

"The decryption is still going on those files, it'll take at least a day or two," she continued, waiting for him to respond.

"I'm going to have to talk Sarif into letting me go to Hong Kong. Maybe I can arrange an audience with Page through Dr. Reed."

Freya paused in picking up her messenger bag when he mentioned Megan. He still hadn't told her what happened when he found Megan in Omega Ranch, only that he never wanted to see her face again. She was his ex-girlfriend, and he'd been a man obsessed with rescuing her. To have such a change of heart, what he found must have been pretty earth-shattering.

"I can contact her in the morning, but I don't think she's made a decision on Page Industries yet – there's nothing on Malik's flight schedule for tomorrow except taking Sarif to Washington D.C. in the morning for congressional hearings. Those are expected to last a couple days, so Malik should be free by late morning."

"Thanks for checking on that, Freya. Are you ready to head home?" he asked, noticing she'd mostly packed all her gear.

"Yeah, I'm starved. Chinese?" she asked, picking up the phone and resting her index finger on the number pad. Jensen let himself relax just a bit; it was hard not to when he saw Freya's bright, expectant blue eyes staring back at him. Nodding, he smiled and came over next to her, slipping an arm around her waist and resting his chin on the side of her head while she ordered. Somehow he found himself missing her immensely even after just a day apart and took in the faint floral aroma of her hair. It was uncharacteristically feminine and he remained still, wanting to prolong the moment just a bit longer. She leaned into him and dialed the number for the Jade Flower restaurant, her finger lingering slightly on each square. Though she was distracted by his touch and her head started feeling spacy, she was able to put in their order and tear herself away from him so they could head out.

She kept close to him as they walked through the streets of Detroit at night. The police force had been decimated during Darrow's attack and the initial shock was starting to wear off, so unsavory figures were beginning to reappear in the alleys. Fortunately it wasn't long before they were walking over the threshold of his apartment, the space filling with aromas of honey walnut prawns and chicken chow mein. Jensen was about to turn on the television, but he hadn't watched anything besides the news in months and neither of them wanted to see that. It was all depressingly predictable. Eliza Cassan's calm, mechanical voice would inform them of more protests and violence around the world. She would then air more discussion about Tai Yong Medical and Hugh Darrow as well as speculation about tomorrow's congressional hearings on the future of the augmentation industry.

"Do you need anything from your place?" Jensen asked, subtly inviting her to stay overnight again. She studied his face a moment as he turned just barely away from her and unpacked the Styrofoam take-out boxes onto fresh paper dishes. He wasn't outspoken about his feelings but with Adam, his actions and what he left unsaid were more meaningful than any official romantic declarations. She smiled and answered, "I already have the basics in my bag since I've spent the night at the office so many times. I have lots of computer gear there, but nothing I need tonight."

"Good," he said, his expression softening as he handed her a plate. None of this felt normal to her yet. This was only her third time stepping foot in Adam's apartment. She still hadn't gotten over him wanting to keep her in his presence. Somehow she was so used to seeing him as a loner, off on solo missions and closing himself off to casual office friendships, that the fact he had feelings for her was still sinking in. As she took the plate from him with one hand, her other traced up his glistening black augmented forearm, enjoying the feel under her fingertips. She couldn't help being so easily distracted by him, it was all so new. Everything about him.

Nervously she kept her eyes averted from his, but he stepped forward and guided the plate back to the counter top, slipping his arm beneath her and around her back. It was as if her touch had set off something inside him and he brought his lips down to hers, forcing her to tilt her face up to him. His hands traced up her spine and twisted into the ends of her dark tresses, mixing pleasure with pain as he bent her neck sharply back. She ran her hands through his hair and pressed her elbows against his shoulder blades, pulling herself up to him. Freya hadn't noticed before, but there was a subtle smell of spicy cologne along his collar mixed with the metallic iron aroma rising up from his arms. It was indescribably intoxicating and she forgot about that dull ache in her stomach, instead wanting nothing more than his lips pressed against hers. He pushed her back into the opposite counter, pressing his body flat against hers, her knees parting to make room for him as she filled with a feverish desire. His tongue gently teased at her mouth and she welcomed it inside, relishing his hands tearing off her jacket and sliding along her bare skin beneath her shirt. Without another word, he picked her up into his arms and carried her into the bedroom. Dinner could wait.


	3. Chapter 3

_He was in the dark again, unable to see, but with the vague knowledge that Namir would be hurtling towards him any moment. His arms and legs were unresponsive. Somehow Zhao's signal had finally kicked in and his augments were barely functional. A flicker of light appeared in front of him and his HUD was visible again, tracking two life signs in the room with him. One was moving away slowly whereas the other was nearly upon him. His relief at having his optical augment working again was cut short by a jolt of pain in his side as Namir barreled into him, crashing the two of them through several of the mechanized cadavers. As he was slammed into the ground, Adam could feel all his augments beginning to respond again. They were resetting to factory zero, but at least he could move again. Not wanting to let on to Namir too soon, Jensen let Namir think he had the upper hand and watched him carefully remove his Diamond Back .357 magnum revolver and aim at Jensen's head._

_"Better to have died before, Jensen. Besides, men like us, we never get back the things we love."_

_As Jensen picked up Namir's intention to pull the trigger, he quickly unsheathed his ceramic blades and sliced cleanly through Namir's extended right prosthetic arm. Adam was showered with blinding sparks as the garish augment flew overhead. Taking advantage of Namir's momentary pain and confusion, Adam leapt up and pinned the mercenary on his back, blades ready to pierce through his chest._

_"Finish it," snarled Namir. _

_Jensen hesitated, but his sensors started picking up the activation of Namir's Typhoon system and he quickly brought the ceramic blades through Namir's chest, piercing straight his augmented heart and spine. Suddenly the scene grew light and blurry, and he felt himself awakening in his bedroom. He was half sitting up in bed, his right hand behind him supporting him and his left bent up with the combat blade unsheathed. His HUD was picking up a flickering life sign beside him and he saw in horror that the tip of the blade was completely embedded in Freya's chest. Her eyes were wide with pain and disbelief, tears welling up and choking back blood in the back of her throat. Adam quickly retracted the blade and bent over her, shakily lifting her limp body off the sheets, terrified of doing even more to hurt her. A cold shock fell like a waterfall down his face to his gut, which was already wrenching painfully. His display was telling him she would be dead in a matter of minutes. Calling for help would be of no use. His aim had been devastatingly precise, straight through her heart. His throat closed off and he couldn't even choke out a word of remorse or comfort to her as he held her weak body in his arms, pulling her out of the growing pool of blood beneath her. Her heart was still beating, but just barely, evidenced by the waves of blood flowing rhythmically out of the exit wound in back of her thorax. Finally, as her eyes started to close and her heart beat stuttered nearly to a halt, he found his voice and cried out in anguish, "Freya!"_

He could swear he shouted himself awake and sat up abruptly in bed, his arms out in front of him. For a moment Adam stared at the black shining polymers with hatred, as at some alien monstrosity, despair and rage still fresh in his chest. He clenched his fists until the metal ground into his palms and quickly looked beside him. His HUD wasn't up yet and he held his breath waiting to see her chest rise gently. No blood was filling her lungs and spilling out beneath them onto the mattress. She wasn't crying tears of agony. Her face was serene and calm. Disregarding her peaceful sleep, he swept her into his arms and buried his face in her neck, one hand holding her head against his cheek. She started awake, "Adam, what is it?"

He didn't answer her and continued to hold her tight, trembling slightly. She relaxed her body and rested her hands on his back reassuringly, wondering what had so disturbed him. Wordlessly, he released her and went to the other room, leaving her alone in the bedroom. She heard a click from the other room and the smell of cigarette smoke wafted gradually into the room. Freya hadn't seen him light up since coming back from Panchaea. Not that it did him any damage: his lungs contained microminiature rebreathers and implanted molecular filters to keep any harmful chemicals from reaching his circulation.

Jensen brought the tan wand of tobacco to his lips and deeply inhaled. No matter how completely he breathed in, he couldn't feel that smoky burn he used to know, but it still helped him focus. Without reaching for any glassware, he took a long swig from the whiskey bottle on the kitchen counter and sat on the couch, bending his head forward into his hands. His heart was finally falling back to a steady beat. He had to shake it off. At the sound of light footsteps, he lifted his head just enough to see Freya walking around the end of the futon. Cautiously she sat on the far end and waited for him to face her.

"Sorry. I haven't slept well for a while," he explained weakly, taking another drag from the cigarette and exhaling slowly, the smoke filling the air between them.

"What happened?" she asked, putting her hand on his shoulder lightly, almost afraid that he might throw it off at any moment. He let it remain there and sighed, his other hand coming around and holding hers tightly, lacing his fingers in with hers.

He hesitated, but then started, "It's usually the same thing – I'm fighting Namir. It used to be the fight that almost killed me six months ago, but lately it's been the one at Omega Ranch. Sometimes I'm winning, more often I'm losing. This one…I dreamed that I woke up after one of those nightmares thinking I had just killed Namir but by accident…you were…"

He broke off and held her eyes in a long, tortured gaze, his lips pursed tightly and his hand clenching hers even more. She was speechless and moved closer. "I'm right here, I'm fine. Have your augments ever activated in your sleep?"

"No, but there's always a first," he said darkly, pulling her into his lap so her back rested against his chest, his hands clasped around her waist. He kissed her neck and she stroked his dark augmented forearms affectionately, following the straight ridge that concealed his lethal armaments.

"There's a failsafe, you know. Your chip detects when you're in REM and stage 4 sleep and keeps your nonessential augments deactivated," she said reassuringly, snuggling deeper into his embrace.

"They could always hack me and deactivate the failsafe, or worse. There's no guarantee that anyone is safe around me at any time." After the Panchaea incident, those words rang truer than ever.

Freya was about to answer when a loud crash down the hall caught both their attention. Adam bolted upright and scanned for signals. There were several markers in Freya's apartment around the corner.

"Stay here," he instructed her. Jensen's optical lenses snapped down over his eyes as he activated his cloaking device, disintegrating into thin air. He stalked slowly to the door and quietly opened it a crack, closing it securely behind him. When he reached the corner of the hall, he saw the door to Freya's apartment had been shot open with high powered rounds and three individuals were inside rummaging around. Crashes rang out, and the sound of metal and plastic snapping. They were making short work of her computer equipment. He crossed the hall and spied two masked men tearing cords out of walls and letting fly several bullets here and there when they had amassed a sufficiently large pile of her gear. With less than a second's pause, Jensen grabbed the two men and forced their skulls together with such force they both crumpled to the floor unconscious. In the next room, the last assailant was at Freya's main computer desk, trying to hack into her main account. A cursory scan showed the man was minimally augmented. Quickly, Adam seized him and slammed him to the floor, withdrawing his revolver and jamming the muzzle into the soft flesh under the man's lower jaw.

He glanced over at Freya's bed and saw a rain of bullets had already been loosed upon it. Shoving the muzzle more firmly, he shouted, "Who sent you?"

The man struggled weakly in Jensen's hold and furrowed his eyes wordlessly. A black cloth covered the assassin's mouth and he was wearing tactical armor, not dissimilar from Adam's.

"I said," started Jensen, lifting him up and slamming him back into the ground again, breaking several ribs, "who sent you?"

The man coughed and some dark liquid began staining the center of the face wrap. Figuring he wouldn't get any answers from him, he swung the butt of the revolver into the side of the man's head and left him knocked out on the floor.

"Sarif, it's Adam," he commed out.

"…ugh…Adam, what time is it?" asked Sarif, half-awake and groping around in the dark for a light switch.

"Nevermind that. Someone sent a team to kill Freya and trash her place. I just dispatched three armed men in her apartment."

"Geez, I knew I put my top people on the same floor for good reason… is she okay?" he asked, concerned.

Adam was already walking back into his apartment to confirm that and breathed easy when he saw her pacing restlessly past the windows in his main room.

"Yeah, she's fine. I've got her at my place for now," he answered. "We'll need to get the cops over to her place to ID the perps, but I have a feeling they'll come up empty. They were there to destroy what she was working on."

"What did you have her looking up for you now, Adam?" asked Sarif. Jensen could already hear a fatherly lecture coming.

"White Helix," he answered.

"Adam, I told you to leave it alone. Those people…"

"That's not all –Page Industries. They are the parent organization for Versalife, Omega Ranch AND White Helix. This all goes back to Bob Page who you were so eager to pass Dr. Reed back to."

Sarif paused a moment and asked, "Did you find anything else out from Darrow?"

"Yeah. The ones responsible for the original kill switch plot. Taggart for one, but we already suspected that. The others are Morgan Everett at Picus, Beth Duclare at the WHO, Stanton Dowd and Bob Page. There's one other, but I won't know who until I talk to Page, and he's in Hong Kong at Versalife's HQ."

"Well shit, Adam, okay. I want you heading out to Page's office ASAP. Megan's already left to start work at his company branch in Hengsha, but I'll try to get word to her. I'm supposed to report to congress this morning, but I can charter a commercial flight. You call Malik and let her know to get ready. Are you going to leave a security detail with Pritchard?"

Adam looked over at Freya and tried to think how he could possibly best assure her safety. Hell, if she had been in her own apartment that night, she would be dead right now. He couldn't very well have her ride along in the VTOL – if they attracted too much heat, that thing could easily be blasted out of the sky and she didn't have augments like his shielding or Icarus landing system.

"Yeah, I'll call a detail and have him stand guard at Sarif Industries. She'll probably be safest someplace public, high profile, with lots of people around," he said, directing his words at Freya as much as at Sarif.

Freya nodded and ran to Adam's bedroom to collect her stuff. Right before going to bed she had stayed up a little later and monitored how decrypting the data from Versalife was progressing. Slowly. But at least it was offline and confined in her mobile unit. She packed it into her Sarif messenger bag and pulled on her cargo pants and jacket. Within a few minutes she was ready to bunker down at work for as long as Jensen needed her to. Jensen was off the phone when she came back into the main living room and he grabbed her arm, quickly rushing her up the steps and out the door. Instead of going to the elevator past Freya's apartment, they went up the stairwell to the roof where Malik was waiting for them in the VTOL.

"What's the plan?" asked Malik over the roar of the engines.

"Dropping Pritchard off at HQ, then we're going to Versalife in Hong Kong," Jensen informed her, helping hoist Freya into the aircraft and securing her seat belts. The flight was short and soon they were stepping out onto the helipad at Sarif Industries.

"Be careful Freya," Adam said, hugging her tightly. "I have an ex-SWAT buddy who will be posted outside the Tech Lab. I've instructed him not to let you out of his sight. He's outside all the normal channels and we go way back, so I think we can trust him, but of course, be careful. Because after all…"

"…everybody lies?" she finished his thought, remembering Eliza's parting words.

Adam nodded and kissed her intensely, not minding Malik's jaw dropping as she saw the two of them. She held him tightly, the adrenalin aiding her in stifling her worries. As their lips parted, Freya stole one more kiss and cast him a glance that said _be careful_ before she turned toward the building. Adam stepped back and watched her leave, ducking and covering her hair as the wind from the VTOL engines swirled around the craft with leaves and dust. He waited to re-enter the VTOL until he saw Freya disappear inside the glass windows, past the outside security patrol.

As they took off towards Hong Kong, Malik started, "So spyboy, I didn't know you and Pritchard were an item!"

Adam chuckled quietly and glanced up at Malik who had a knowing smirk on her face, clearly delighted by her discovery. He nodded, "Yeah, I guess the word's out now. Good thing those guys who shot up her apartment weren't in the know."

"Seriously! I gotta say, though, I saw that coming a mile away," she said matter-of-factly.

"Still had to pick your mouth off the ground back there," he teased.

"Hey, some things you can picture as many times as you want but when you finally see it, it still throws you for a loop."

"You said it, Malik."


	4. Chapter 4

"Adam, check it out," Malik's voice alerted him as they approached Hong Kong

Jensen leaned out the edge of the VTOL and looked ahead of them at the row of pearly skyscrapers lining the coast of the island. With each subsequent row, the roofs reached like spears ever higher towards the sky. They staggered with one another until the buildings only four layers back were nearly twice the height of the front ones. Fishing ships with their red and gold embossed dragon wing sails tottered beneath them in the bay. Unlike Hengsha, which always felt like dusk in the shadow of the upper city, Hong Kong had no ceiling and the sun reflected blindingly.

Adam commed Freya, "We just arrived. Are you picking up any activity?"

"They don't seem to have noticed you, but the alert that was in place in Hengsha is still active – you should stay just outside their airspace," she cautioned him, watching their GPLs relative to the Chinese fly zone boundaries.

"Okay, then tell me your brilliant plan for getting me to Versalife's headquarters," he asked, glancing at Malik as she turned the thrusters away from the virtual borders flashing on her dashboard display.

"Well you might not like it, but you have a rebreather aug, right?"

"If you're suggesting what I think you are…" he started, looking down at the cold choppy waves cresting below them.

"Look, on the southeastern side of Hong Kong island, there are several storm drains which travel directly beneath Versalife. They don't look too heavily guarded, and the distance you'd have to swim from the edge of their airspace is a little less than a mile."

"Easy for you to say, you're not the one swimming," he started, "but unless there's a better method you're not telling me about…"

"I assume you wanted to go in low profile – you could always land on one of the ships and commandeer it, but that might attract too much attention. This way you could avoid being seen on the streets where you might be recognized and easily bypass their outer security."

"Right, okay – Malik?"

"On it," she answered, charting a course for the location Freya marked on her instruments. As they skirted the edge of the invisible perimeter which was doubtless monitored by a military grade radar system, Malik brought the craft down closer to the surface of the water.

"I'll be waiting for a signal from you or Freya. We'll rendezvous at the top of the Versalife building – I should be able to get to you with enough time to outrun their defenses." Jensen halted his movements for a second, meeting Malik's determined brown eyes. She knew what it meant to invade China's airspace. Again. After what happened last time. Adam searched his mind for another option, but a water landing would not be feasible if he attracted any attention. Knowing his luck, he would be needing a fast extraction.

"Right," he nodded.

She noticed his pause and shouted after him as he readied to jump, "Maybe this time I'll rescue _you, _spy boy._"_

Jensen shot a grin back at her and hurtled himself out of the VTOL. After a short twenty meter drop, slowed slightly by his Icarus Landing System, he plunged under the steel blue surface of the South China Sea. Freya uploaded the coordinates of the storm drain to Adam's HUD and watched his progress on her leftmost monitor in the Tech Lab. To her right, her laptop was hard at work still decrypting the data she had lifted from Versalife the day before. It was at ninety-five percent.

In the doorway leaned the hunched frame of Wayne Haas, his arms crossed and head bent forward. His blond hair fell just over his eyebrows and he would have been quite tall and impressive if it were not for the way he carried himself. His demeanor was inexplicably apologetic, and his hazel brown eyes avoiding everyone around him. When he introduced himself to Pritchard as Jensen's former SWAT partner, his eyes darted down away from her and his tone of voice was hurried. He explained that Jensen had invited him onto the Sarif security force just a few days ago, but he obviously didn't expect his first task to be a babysitting job.

As the computers whirred away, she saw him stretch languidly and head towards her desk, leaning against the far edge.

"So, what's your story?" he asked.

"Well, you can probably guess if you look around. Cyber security. You?"

"I was in SWAT with Jensen until the shit hit the fan in Mexicantown. You might have heard about that incident a few years back…" he started, a dark anger surfacing in his eyes.

"I saw Adam's background check, so I know a bit about it. Did you leave after all of that?" she asked, sitting back in her chair and glancing briefly at the decryption. Ninety-seven percent.

"Jensen resigned. I… look, you see a lot in the force. But when an entire city section wants your blood just because you followed orders, it gets to you. I just…I had to get out of that," he explained carefully, with obvious omissions. Freya didn't want to pry since it was clearly still a fresh wound in Wayne's mind.

"I'm thankful that you're here, though. After last night…" she looked nervously out the windows to the atrium, as if she expected to see red laser sights beaming back at her.

"What exactly happened? Jensen didn't say much on the phone," Wayne asked curiously, leaving Mexicantown behind.

"I was trying to get information about Versalife and some of its activities, and I attracted too much attention, so they trashed my place last night. Undoubtedly they would have killed me if I'd been there. That's where Adam is right now, trying to infiltrate their headquarters."

She glanced over at the monitor with Adam's GPL and saw he was more than halfway there. Wayne came around behind the desk and looked with her, following the flickering triangle as it drew closer to its destination. Moments later, Adam commed her, "Okay, I'm in." She uploaded the drain network map for him and heard the alert from her laptop that decryption had completed. As she scanned through the data, she saw that while most of it was research-related, somehow she had managed to extract all their security codes as well.

"Adam, guess what, that data I pulled yesterday – it's got every access code you could need! Assuming they haven't changed them since the breach. I'm sending them to you now."

Adam nodded and continued down the drainage pipes, which were barely four feet high so he had to crouch. He stayed to the side out of the majority of the debris, but still had to step over large piles of rotting newspapers and even the occasional discarded augment. Up ahead was a junction where he would turn right, but he heard several voices and the sound of people rummaging around. Clangs from metal junk being tossed aside echoed down the culvert. As Adam peered around the corner, he could see several men digging in the heaps of refuse. When he spied the garish golden augments, he knew exactly who they were. Harvesters. After the Panchaea incident, there was undoubtedly a treasure trove of tech and augments that had fallen beneath the city, waiting to be scavenged. There were only four of them, so Jensen carefully aimed and shot the farthest one with a tranquilizer dart. The others didn't seem to notice their fallen comrade, so he reloaded and took a second shot. That alerted the remaining two, but he was able to quickly race up while cloaked and dispatch them without a second thought.

Just two more junctions to go and he would be beneath Versalife. As he approached the final junction, he noticed a stronger organic aroma emanating from the stream at the center of the passageway. The liquid had grown darker and thicker as well, almost congealed. When he reached it, there was a ladder of iron rods in the concrete wall that led up to a floor grate stained with rust. The odor seemed to have gotten worse, and the air didn't smell any fresher as he lifted the crusted rectangular panel up and out of his way.

He barely managed to squeeze himself through the opening and as he sat back on the linoleum, he scanned for life signs. No one within fifty meters. The room was very cold - his sensors indicated it was being kept at forty-five degrees Fahrenheit. As he looked around him, he had to stifle a surge of nausea. A pungent smell of formaldehyde was suffocating, emanating from figures covered in white sheets resting on the dozens of tables in the room. There were at least thirty, each surface tapered just slightly at one end to allow a steady 'drip drip' of liquid to fall to the floor through the table's drain. The stream from beneath each table traveled slowly along the incline of the floor to the spot from which Jensen had just emerged, as to a shower drain.

Adam pulled the drape away from the nearest one and cringed. Beneath it was a partially dissected human body, most of the skin removed. The person had several different augments – a Sarif brand arm prosthetic and artificial eyes and a Tai Yong Medical leg augment. What drew Adam's attention most was the area of contact between the organic flesh and the augments. Not only was it not well connected, but it almost looked like the flesh had melted away from the artificial components. The reaction was somewhat comparable to the worst cases of augment rejection syndrome, but Adam had never seen anything like it. At the interface with the eye implants, the eyelids and even some of the orbital bone had eroded away. Adam took a quick snapshot with his optics enhancement and then moved to the desk and file cabinets near the door, wondering if there was any information that would shed some light.

"Freya, I'm in, any progress with the decryption?"

"It finished just a moment ago, scanning through it now," she answered him.

"Have you found anything mentioning an accelerated rejection syndrome?" he asked, forcing the drawers open and flipping through the patient files. Each seemed to have been intentionally exposed to a substance "SLK-109." With each dossier, there was a carefully documented account of how the subject developed flu-like symptoms and severe headache initially, but within an hour began suffering severe internal hemorrhaging, coma, and complete implant rejection. It seemed the rapidness of onset was a problem for the developers, who wanted it to have a more indolent course.

"I haven't seen anything about that yet, but there's a ton of information in here – it'll take me some time to categorize and filter it. Right now I'm seeing a lot of information about a 'promising nanite discovery' that could one day make most current augmentations obsolete…"

"What about SLK-109, can you search for that?" he asked, inputting one of their stolen codes into the computer. It worked, so that likely meant the rest of the codes were still functional as well.

"Holy crap, Adam, that pulled up over 300 hits. I'll start looking through that data now."

Adam carefully exited the lab and scanned for the best route to make it upstairs to Page's office. Like Sarif, Page had a penthouse on the top floor of the building. The elevator would be a straight shot. At the end of the hall he saw the lift's doors were shut and the floor number twelve was illuminated. Prying open the outer doors, Jensen peered up the shaft and saw a series of maintenance ladders along the far corner. Every several floors there was a laser security grid, but Jensen could simply activate his cloaking device and pass through undetected.

"Adam, it looks like they have been working on some way to counter the possibility of supercompatibility," Pritchard informed him.

Jensen held tight to the frail steel rungs as the elevator surged past him, shaking everything around it. "You mean because of Megan's research?"

"Yes. With the prospect of losing control over augmented people if Neuropozyne were no longer needed, it looks like they want to eliminate the threat of augmentation altogether. Like a backup to the kill switch."

"A pretty deadly back up," said Adam grimly as he reached the top level. Not wanting to take the direct route, he pried open an air duct and followed along until he could see into Page's office through one of the side vents. A quick scan told him the room was empty. Carefully, he dropped down onto the floor, landing next to an antique bookshelf and potted palm tree. Across from him was a regal oak desk, very well organized, with a glass computer overlay taking up the wall behind it. The display was framed with elegant gray drapes and the room was lit dimly by a chandelier in the upper right corner. As Jensen approached the computer, he heard Freya comm in.

"You're right above a major computer processing floor – I think it's all directly wired into Page's personal terminal. If you can get into his computer, that'll give us access to everything I couldn't crack before."

"Only one way to find out." Adam pulled the padded armchair out from behind the desk and sat in front of the computer, his hands resting on the keyboard. His sensors could pick up a security detail passing back and forth outside the office, as well as a security camera outside. As he accessed the subroutine to hack into the system, he heard the notification that his comm line was activating.

Adam paused as a stream of static poured into his receiver. Every couple seconds there was a blip, and finally a thick, heavily altered voice was audible.

"Bratan, so good to see you still alive."

"Quinn? Wait, no, you're the hacker from the Rifleman Bank Station. Who is this?" Adam asked back rapidly. The last time he heard this voice, he was infiltrating the RBS, where he had nearly died en route to Singapore. If it weren't for a double agent Quinn, Commander Keitner, and an anonymous Russian super-hacker, he likely wouldn't have made it out of there alive.

"Adam, ostyn. Our goals are the same. Hacking Page's computer will only serve to alert them to your presence. I have something better for you. Uberalles."

"What?"

"Uberalles. Page's passcode. Unfortunately, I am unable to download the data remotely, as their firewalls prevent any data from leaving his terminal over the network. It must be retrieved manually."

"That's where I come in, I take it." Jensen put the password in and started looking for some way to access the computer.

"Yes. You'll need to connect yourself directly to the terminal."

Adam remembered when Freya had transferred some upgrades using one of his neck ports and looked for something that would serve as a connector. Beside the monitor, there was an apparatus with an unconnected jack sitting as if solely for the purpose of connecting neural hubs to the system. He presumed that was how Page kept the information private. Jensen pressed in on one of the circular ports in his neck and rotated enough to let the cover pop open. Reluctantly, he pressed the prongs through and cringed a little as his chip recognized the external data source.

"You don't have time to sort out what information is relevant, so you should transfer his entire hard drive and cached correspondences and we can filter it at my base of operations. I have already taken the liberty of giving your pilot new coordinates."

"I have to stop back at Sarif Industries first, I can't…" protested Jensen, knowing he couldn't leave Freya unguarded for long.

"A team is already heading there to retrieve Pritchard. It was an admirable plan to try to keep her secure at your employer's building, but I'm afraid that isn't enough to stop these men. They will stop at nothing to keep the truth buried," the voice informed him.

"How did you know?"

"We have been keeping track of their movements, as well as yours. With all her activity in Versalife's network, Pritchard caught our attention as well. I'm afraid you both have passed beyond the point of no return. You cannot rely on your friend Sarif."

"Freya?" Adam called out to her.

"I heard him, Adam. I'll tell Wayne and get ready to go. I'll see you soon," she answered him.

Pritchard stood up and looked around desperately at her office – so many invaluable pieces of hardware that she would have to leave behind. She started with her laptop, which she packed in the most secure position at the center of her bag. Wayne stepped back as she grabbed one of her portable hard drives from across the table and began several data transfers of essential programs and projects she had been working on.

"What's going on, Freya?" asked Wayne, alerted by her sudden rush to pack up her gear.

"Adam says someone is coming to get me, to meet him someplace," she answered hurriedly.

"Where?" he asked, concerned, "Does he need me to come too?"

"I think you're better off staying here," she said, almost sadly. Not for him, but for her. There really was no turning back now. They couldn't keep pretending that things were the same, that the world hadn't changed. She couldn't go back and erase all the things she had learned out of her head. She and Adam had stepped into _their_ world, and that came with far-reaching consequences that she had to face. If she didn't, they would catch up to her nonetheless.

Wayne seemed to miss the point and looked a little sullen, but he turned back to the Tech Lab entrance to stand guard. As Freya glanced in his direction, she saw a shimmer in the air ripple through the doorway past Wayne. She could barely make out the outline of a person when the cloaking device flickered off suddenly. A tall, olive skinned woman with silver augmented limbs and thick black body armor stepped towards her. Her dark braided hair was pulled into a tight bun behind her head and her dark eyes flashed with intensity.

"You're Pritchard?" she addressed Freya, her voice firm and resolute from years of military training.

Freya nodded and somehow she thought the woman's face warmed up, "Janus sent me. He's the one you heard on the comms with your man in Hong Kong. We have to go now. Are you ready?" Her voice rolled with a rich West Indies accent.

"Let…let me just grab a couple more things…" she said, nervously grabbing a few data logs off her desk as her file transfers completed. Her anxiety level rose even further and she did a final check through her cabinets, tossing a few lone cyberboost bars into the bag. You never know when you might need them. Finally she was ready to go and as Wayne nervously stepped out of the Tech Lab with the two of them, the front doors of the Sarif Lobby crashed open, the glass panes shattering and raining down on everyone on the first floor below them. Two smoke bombs went off and filled the entry with a gray fog as deafening gunfire erupted. The woman forced Freya to duck and pulled her towards back of the building where their transportation was waiting for them. Wayne was firing at the assailants, easily recognized as Belltower special ops by their ominous red and black uniforms. As they passed through the doors into the cafeteria, Freya saw Wayne fall against the glass, a spray of blood painting the window. She cried out and fought for a moment against her new escort, but she was overpowered and half-shoved, half-carried onto the landing platform. Instead of the VTOL she usually saw Faridah piloting, there was a flatter, more angular craft waiting for them. The flat design was likely intended for better radar stealth and it had two rotated ducted propellers for vertical take-offs behind each wing.

Beside the open door was another operative who received Freya as the augmented woman practically threw her into the craft.

"Don't worry, we've got you," the older man pulled her into a seat as the woman's arm converted into a semi-automatic machine gun and opened return fire on their pursuers. As they took off, Freya had a moment to look at the man who sitting beside her. He had a circular scar from cerebral augments that started at the corners of his mouth and met up at his forehead. His chin had two silver nodes beneath his lip and the faint shadow of a dark, graying beard. After his silver brown eyes had scanned her for injuries and seemed satisfied, he said, "Shiv, let Janus know we've got the little bird safe and sound."

"Copy that," the woman replied, stepping back inside and letting her arm rearrange back into a normal limb. As she stood in the passenger hold, one arm lazily hanging from the rafters like a subway hand hold, she smiled at Freya. "I'm Shivana Cassells. That there is Anton Mosyakov. Welcome to the Juggernaut Collective."


	5. Chapter 5

Adam watched the cold, snow covered tundra pass beneath as Malik flew them towards a small concrete installation on the outskirts of Kazan, Russia. When she picked him up from the roof at Versalife, she had received coordinates from the anonymous hacker and had to fly up and around the eastern tip of China before heading west. He had slept as best he could in the VTOL, but his mind was too restless. There were endless questions – who were these people? What were their goals? Malik brought them down onto the tarmac outside a circular, unmarked concrete building. The land was flat and loggers had cleared the forest around the facility years ago, but tattered blades of straw-colored grass were trying to reclaim it. Beyond the short clearing, still farther from the building, was a thick forest with leaves of fading yellow and burgundy still clinging to the branches. As Adam stepped down from the plane, he saw a hangar opening in the side of the building which he hadn't see from overhead.

"Jensen, think they'll let me refuel?" asked Malik, stepping out of the cockpit and scanning along the runway.

"They'll have to. You need to get back to Sarif Industries as soon as you can. It's bad enough Freya and I have gotten wrapped up in this business."

"I appreciate the concern, Jensen, but even if you never come back to Sarif Industries, I'll lend you my wings whenever you need them," she said fiercely.

He smiled and thanked her, turning away from Malik and towards the windowless building. As he neared it, he tried to scan for life signs but got no response, even when he was close enough to see several people inside. _They must have a signal jammer. _Once inside the hangar, he was surprised to see a familiar face that wasn't Freya's by one of the stealth jets.

"Quinn?" Jensen started incredulously.

"Please, that's not my name anymore, bratan. It's Anton. I see you made it out of Panchaea. Janus said we'd be seeing you again," he started, shaking Jensen's hand firmly in solidarity.

"Janus?" asked Adam, confused.

"As ingenious as I was at getting you out of that Belltower facility, it was nothing compared to Janus. He is the real brains, and the money, behind our operation."

"And what exactly is this operation?" asked Jensen, only to be answered shortly by a woman's voice coming from a stairwell to the right.

"We are the Juggernaut Collective," answered Shivana, the tall Trinidadian woman who had escorted Freya safely out of Sarif HQ. "The only real resistance to the Illuminati."

Behind Shivana, Adam saw Freya, still wearing a Sarif jacket, her hair messily tied up behind her. When she met his eyes, relief washed over her face but she stayed a slight distance away, not walking ahead of Shivana. He retracted his optics display and looked back at Anton.

"The man with the computerized voice...Janus, I suppose. He said something about decoding the information I extracted from Page's terminal. Also, my pilot needs to refuel."

"Here, I'll take you down to the base. Hey, Dmitri!" Anton shouted at the plane, addressing a blond haired man who was still inside the cockpit a few meters away.

"Yeah, what?" he stepped into view and lifted up his orange noise cancelling headphones. He was a stocky man and wearing a black and silver flight suit and black ankle-high lace up boots. The design was similar to Malik's suit, but compared to her precise, deliberate demeanor, Dmitri wore them casually like a mechanic's overalls.

"The Sarif plane needs to refuel. Can you help them out with that?"

The man nodded and muttered something in Russian before heading over to a fueling car around the corner from the jet. Adam finally took a moment to look around the ground level of the facility. It almost looked like an old Soviet air field – some steel girders were protruding across the ceiling and the lighting was achieved by rows of incandescent light bulbs tacked along the walls on single cords. Beside the stairwell was a large flood light on a stand connected to a generator which was loudly whirring away.

Adam followed behind Anton down the steps into the lower level, stepping carefully in the dark and watching Freya and Shivana out of the corner of his vision.

Silently he commed Freya, "What happened in Detroit? Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine," she replied, "but Belltower stormed Sarif HQ right as we were leaving. I don't think Wayne made it out."

He frowned, "That was awfully good timing." He had grown quite suspicious of anything that seemed too conventient. "Have they told you anything?"

"A little... I think they were waiting for you, but I did show them some of the data I pulled the other day. You'll see soon, they have a really high tech operation here."

As soon as she said that, they came down into the next level, which was illuminated by a cluster of computer screens and server towers. Thick cords fixed to the ground with electrical tape crisscrossed their path as they connected like arteries between the adjacent terminals. There were at least eight stations and one central command center with two small screens on either side of a huge glass panel that reached as high as the ceiling. Projecting up from the table, the panel showed a blue outline of the continents, and several green dots representing satellites were moving over the land along dashed-line trajectories. A Chinese man sat hunched in front of the screen, typing away furiously on two different keyboards simultaneously. There were at several different data cords connected into the back of his head and neck, and the speed at which he worked was more machine than man.

"Hey, Jie, we have visitors," announced Shivana, stepping aside to let Freya walk up beside Adam.

The man froze and then typed a passcode to lock each screen before spinning around to face them. Jensen was stunned at the level of cerebral augmentations he had. Instead of subtle realistic eye augments like Jensen's, he had replaced each socket with a lidless metal apparatus containing red laser optical readers. Presumably it made his hacking more streamlined as he could manipulate data and interact with the network more directly. His hands had also been replaced up to the wrist, but had a porcelain hue so they appeared less dramatic, more human.

"Jensen, Adam. Pritchard, Freya," he said plainly, looking at them each in turn as he stated their names. His mind still seemed in another world. He jerked his neck to face Adam, head tilting slightly. "You have something for me?"

Jensen took one step back defensively. He couldn't help feeling uneasy around the man. If he acted more human it wouldn't have bothered him as much, but it was a little too close to the ideal that Sarif always spoke of. More than human.

"Ah, I have made him uncomfortable. Please, sit," Jie said politely, gesturing to one of the chairs at an adjacent desk. Adam looked at Freya and sat himself down, his black prosthetic hands resting uneasily on his knees. Jie stood and walked around back, an amused grin on his face.

"Is something funny?" Adam asked.

"Just admiring Sarif's fine engineering…" Jie said softly, reaching forward to open one of Jensen's access ports.

"Woah, hold on," Jensen stood up abruptly, raising his hand between himself and Jie.

Freya immediately recognized his reaction and interjected, "Can't he just transfer it to a secondary device?"

Adam imagined that if Jie still had eyebrows, they'd be raised. The slight crinkle at the top of his forehead suggested as much, as well as the way he paused with his lips just slightly apart. "So slow, so slow! Why take two steps when you can take one? But as you insist. Such a shame…I should love to see what your neural network looks like…"

Jie turned around and picked up a rectangular black device the size of a brick with two pinpoint blue lights and a knobby, frayed black cord sticking out of the shorter end. To Adam's relief, Freya seized Jie's wrist and took the storage canister out of his hand.

"I'll do it," she stated, more a command than a request. Jie's translucent red optical lenses darted excitedly back and forth, as if her actions were a puzzling conundrum in human behavior. She frowned at Jie as if scolding him and then stood beside Adam, carefully placing the connector. "Okay, Adam, you should be able to see the drive on your HUD."

He nodded and she felt the whirring of the device between her fingers, indicating it was receiving the data transfer. As the transfer was completing, he heard the mechanical, overly filtered voice of Janus comm through.

"You still resist embracing what it is to be augmented…" the voice mused.

"I would have been fine with staying human. This race to become more than human... when do you reach the point when you stop being human altogether?" he countered, frowning. Freya removed the port and handed it back to Jie who eagerly hooked himself up to see what he had been brought.

"You were gifted with the ability to become more than any of us, to surpass the biological limits awkwardly developed through time-consuming evolution. To ignore such potential…"

Adam didn't respond to the last comment and watched as Jie excitedly scanned through the information. Anton and Shivana drew closer as well, the four of them forming a semi-circle around Jie. His eyes stared off now and then, alternating with darting in all directions unpredictably. Shivana couldn't sit still – she was compulsively gnawing on her lip and tapping her artificial foot on the concrete floor as she waited. Suddenly, Jie burst out laughing. A loud, boisterous laugh that seemed uncharacteristic for him.

"Jie?" asked Anton cautiously. "Jie Chang."

"It is such a beautiful algorithm! Ah, I have not had a challenge like this in ages. Mr. Robert Page takes no chances. But he has not dealt with the likes of me, no sir, he has not," Jie said cheerfully, almost unaware of those waiting around him. Seeming to remember himself, he returned to his earlier composure.

"I will need some time to… coerce this data to reveal her secrets… I promise you by tomorrow morning she will be putty in my hands…but for now, I must focus."

Jie turned and sat back on his command chair, facing the screens. He unlocked the side computers and in unison, the screens synced with his neural hub. Text indecipherable to Jensen fired down the panels, but Freya stared in awe his superhuman technical skills.

"If I were half as good as Jie, I would have had that Versalife data unwrapped in an hour, tops…" she murmured to herself.

"Don't beat yourself up, dyevushka," Anton said warmly, putting a hand on Freya's shoulder. "Besides, if you hadn't opened that door, Jensen wouldn't have been there to use the key Janus had for Page's terminal."

The four of them stood watching Jie for a moment longer until Shivana sighed, "Well, he'll be no use 'til tomorrow. I'll show you to your quarters."

"Wait, I still have some questions," Jensen said.

"I imagine you have several. Like I said, Janus is the brains of our operation. We don't know much about him, or her. None of us have even met Janus in person, but he's our main financier."

"How can you trust him?" asked Jensen suspiciously.

"He chose each of us. He invited us to the collective based on our pursuit of the truth about where true power lies. Shivana used to be a member of the Tyrants, but she went rogue when she got tired of staging coups for the Illuminati. Myself and Jie liked to screw with major corporations and government entities by seeing how far we could infiltrate their networks. For us, the truth somewhat fell into our laps. Much like you two. Upstairs we have Dmitri Antonov, our pilot. He left the Tyrants with Shivana. It's a great story Shiv'll have to tell you sometime."

"What about Dr. Kavanaugh? When I went to Interpol in London to talk to Darrow, there wasn't so much as a whisper about her. I certainly haven't seen anything on the news, either," Adam continued.

"She's here, with us. We safely extracted her and she is helping Janus assemble the information about the extent of Belltower's involvement in the Hyron project at the RBS," Anton answered.

"And you mean to release that information to the public?" Jensen continued, pressing further as to their ultimate goal.

"That's the short of it, yes. But you're both exhausted, and whatever Jie discovers may well change the whole game plan. I suggest you get some rest, and we'll all start fresh tomorrow. Don't you worry none, we take care of each other here," Anton advised them, indicating to Shivana to show them their rooms. Adam begrudgingly consented.

The Trinidadian led them to the left, out of the tangle of tech and the blue impersonal glow of computer terminals. They went past a makeshift kitchen, which contained many appliances that had been modified by either Jie or Anton for increased efficiency. Freya made a mental note to return at some point and take a closer look at them, especially what had to be the most elaborate coffee maker she had ever seen. Beyond that, Shivana led them down a hallway that had several rooms connecting to it. The original purpose of the rooms was likely interrogation or imprisonment, but they now each contained a comfortable appearing mattress supported on a rectangular concrete ledge on the far wall. Each room was lit with a single incandescent bulb, casting the room in chiaroscuro, and there was a lonely dilapidated bureau in one of the corners.

"Now, I don't mean to make assumptions, but do you guys really need two rooms? Space is kind of tight around here," Shivana asked bluntly.

Freya started to answer but Adam beat her to it.

"One will be fine," he announced succinctly. Freya was secretly relieved. Considering everything, she was worried Jensen would distance himself from her and bury his mind inward. He'd allayed those concerns with just four words.

"Alright then. If you need any food, we have a bunch of stuff stockpiled in the pantry. Just help yourselves. Don't worry about security – Janus has one of the most secure electromagnetic shields in existence. It's like we're invisible," she smirked.

With that, Shivana left them standing there in the doorway, her footsteps echoing down the cold hallway. Freya pursed her lips and without meeting Adam's eyes reached for his hand, holding the warm prosthetic tightly. She had kept it together so far, but the shock was starting to catch up and reality was cracking at the corners as she stared at the austere concrete walls. She stepped into the room and sat on the bed, trying to get used to the idea of never seeing her Chiron apartment again. Wordlessly Adam sat beside Freya and wrapped his arms around her, gently pressing her head against his chest. As he held her, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, focusing on the sound of his strong, regular heartbeat. As Freya absorbed the rhythmic vibrations, somehow she was able to forget about the thousands of things that were rushing through her mind seconds before. For just a moment, nothing was more important than the stillness in that room, temporary though it may be.

She brought her arms around him and whispered softly, "Sarif'll be furious neither of us sent him a two weeks notice…"

He laughed, stroking her hair, "I hadn't even thought about that."

Adam lied back on the bed, pulling her down alongside him so they were staring at the ceiling. She turned towards his body and reached her arm across his chest, her fingertips tracing slowly along his collar.

"Are you okay?" he asked her, watching her expression closely in the dark.

"I have no clue. It's too soon to say. I think it's the right thing to do though, joining with them. Even if we have little real choice in the matter."

"The alternative isn't exactly an option," he grumbled. "But Quinn- I mean, Anton, helped me before. I can't say that about many people. After Eliza's message got doctored down, it just became painfully clear how much influence the Illuminati really have."

"You'd think the existence of Eliza in itself would have been enough," she said jokingly. After all, she was a secret artificial intelligence program manufactured by the Illuminati for the sole purpose of manipulating the news.

He grinned, "That was a bit of a bombshell. At first I was so focused on how it pertained just to me, with the experimentation at White Helix and the research on my DNA... but this is so much bigger than me, or us."

She nodded in agreement. "Now that we've come this far, we have to ask ourselves what is the point of fighting so hard to uncover the truth if it never sees the light of day?"

"We still have to look out for ourselves. Their crusade doesn't have to become ours, but I think with everything that has happened, you're right. Whether we join with them or not, we all have the same goal and need to see it through." Adam tugged her hair tie free and ran his fingers through her hair, letting her long locks fall onto his shoulder. Kissing her forehead tenderly, he whispered, "Let's get some sleep. Who knows what tomorrow will bring."

Freya shut her eyes and let the reassuring beat in his chest and warm embrace lull her into a deep, dreamless sleep.


	6. Chapter 6

Jensen turned in bed and stared up at the unfamiliar ceiling, pale white light illuminating the room through the open door. Freya must have already gotten up – he couldn't sense her beside him. He rolled over on the mattress and his feet fell flat onto the slightly uneven concrete, the artificial soles clacking unnaturally on the surface. Even though they were augments, he still felt an uncomfortable chill from the cold floor shoot up his calves. Down the hall he could hear a faint murmur of voices and headed in that direction, stopping just outside the kitchen beyond their view.

"…so you see, Freya, this bastard here completely reconfigured their security systems, so when they lifted off in their helicopter, the anti-aircraft turrets immediately started firing on _them! _It was beautiful," a woman laughed triumphantly. He recognized the Trinidadian accent immediately, with its subtle British influences but distinctly Caribbean twang.

"It was risky," continued a thick Russian voice, not Anton's. "Shiv had to make it look like we didn't know they were running after us, so they would walk right into it. She had to let a couple explosions go off a bit closer to her than was really safe…"

"Yeah, I had to get my augs completely reconfigured after that… but it was worth it to get out from under that leash. After the mission in Sydney, when I first started learning about the Hyron project, I just felt sick to my stomach," Shivana continued, revulsion audible in her voice.

"How did you find out about it?" Adam heard Freya's voice finally join the conversation.

"Oh," Shivana started, "we, the Tyrants I mean, had to assassinate an investigator who was getting too close to the Indian Ocean installation. I was tapping the lines in and out, including over the network, and saw all the information she had uncovered about the project. About the kidnapped women being used as drones. Also, it seemed like a lot of it what we were doing was just to make money, not to steer the world along a better course. That's why I joined in the first place, because the Illuminati had promised to be the guiding hand for human kind and had the audacity to want to be part of that."

Adam heard footsteps behind him and saw his graying friend Anton extending a cup of coffee. The man smiled gently, the corners of his brown eyes crinkling warmly even with the circular augment scars.

"There's no need to cling to the shadows," he said softly, "though I don't really blame you, bratan."

Jensen brought the cup to his lips, enjoying the nutty aroma steaming from it. Whenever he spoke, he still half-expected an Irish tone of voice, since that had been Anton's persona while infiltrating the Rifleman Bank Station. "When does Janus want us to convene?" Adam asked, taking a leisurely sip of the hot liquid.

"Soon. Jie has already sent him everything to review. I was just coming to fetch you."

He followed Anton around into the other room, meeting Freya's eyes as they headed past the table. The others got up with them and together they went to the main server room where Jie was waiting for them. Behind Jie on the enormous screen was a blurred electric blue humanoid face. Freya came up next to Adam, standing between him and Shivana. The light from the monitors beamed down on them, giving their faces an unearthly glow. On Adam's left stood Anton and Dmitri. To his surprise, behind them was another familiar face – Dr. Kavanaugh, the meek brunette scientist he had helped rescue from the Rifleman Bank station laboratory. She smiled nervously at him and kept the same worried look on her face that he remembered from before. _I wonder how she feels about being deceived about Interpol, or whether she even knows about that_, Jensen pondered to himself.

"I see you have all arrived," said the deep toned, heavily disguised voice booming from speakers on either side of the display. The face flickered slightly as he spoke. "It is time I introduced myself to our guests. I am Janus. I have finished assessing the new information from Page's hard drive, as well as what Freya obtained earlier about White Helix."

Adam folded his arms and shifted his weight toward Freya in anticipation, but maintained a skeptical look on his face. His eyes stayed concealed by the black lenses of his optics display and he had background processes continually monitoring everyone in the room.

"Thanks to this new information, we now know that the Illuminati wish to eliminate the threat of augmented human beings. Since control failed, they will seek to eradicate augmented people, while at the same time developing an alternative in the form of nanotechnology. Currently, that is in the form of a virus, which Adam saw proof of at Versalife."

Everyone glanced in his direction and Jensen nodded barely, keeping his shades down. After a brief pause, Janus continued.

"Our mission is to get the message out to the world – about the Illuminati's plan to control augmented people with the kill switch, their new plan to eliminate them entirely with a lethal virus, and the worldwide kidnappings and experiments at the Rifleman Bank Station. Now, we have an ally through Adam and Freya – namely Eliza Cassan. Unfortunately she cannot act freely while the Illuminati still have their controls in place. The last one is hidden by the current leader of the Illuminati, who we have not been able to identify. Eliza suggested that Page may be willing to share that information. It seems he has always been more progressive –White Helix was his project years ago, separate from the Illuminati, and when it was destroyed from within, they did not seek to rebuild much to his frustration. If we could get to him, we may be able to find out where that last control is."

"Any bright ideas for how to do that?" asked Shivana, her dark features a mixture of skepticism and excitement.

"The information Adam and Freya obtained included Page's entire schedule – tomorrow he will be leaving Japan for San Francisco. I believe if we intercept him en route, we will have the advantage since he will be isolated without backup. I can interrupt all communication to and from the plane. I believe Adam would be the ideal operative for this task."

Shivana stamped angrily, her silver augment almost tearing through her boot as she dashed it into the concrete. Smirking knowingly, Anton nudged Jensen who still had a stony expression on his face.

"I'm not saying I'm unhappy you have such confidence in me, but why do you think I'd be right for this?" Adam asked, his head tilting just slightly more up toward the screen.

The blue avatar, though pixelated, had a subtle change in expression, "You were part of Page's personal project, White Helix - his mission to advance himself. The rest of humanity was just along for the ride. You may be able to use your connection to obtain that information, since you also want to know more about your past. It might also keep him from killing you on the spot, thus giving you an advantage."

All those 'might's and 'may's. It was starting to sound like another plan that required more luck than Adam liked. He glanced at Freya, who was avoiding his eyes but he saw the rise of apprehension in her shoulders. Pursing his lips, he turned his gaze slowly back to the blank, emotionless voice ahead of them.

"Okay, how am I supposed to get to him mid-air?" Adam asked.

As he thought, Janus already had a plan figured out. "Dmitri will fly you and Anton to intercept the plane. I'll take down their sensors and communications and sync up the planes' trajectories so you can deploy a cable that would land you at the luggage hatch on the rear. It's separately pressurized from the cabin, so you should be able to enter the hatch, seal it, and then enter the main cabin from there. As for an escape plan, you have the Icarus Landing system and the ocean below you. We'll fish you out."

Dmitri let out a hearty laugh and looked at Anton for some sign that it was just a joke. When Anton didn't join in, he turned wide eyed back at Janus.

"Obaldet, you really want us to hook up to Page's plane and have Jensen swing down to it on a string?" Dmitri asked incredulously.

"I will take control of the planes and pilot them to a safe speed and altitude. His augments will keep him from suffering oxygen deprivation, freezing, or limb damage," Janus explained.

"Oh, well that's reassuring," Freya muttered, but she had seen him in such dangerous situations that this hardly seemed worse. Heck, he had relied on his augments to land him safely on Panchaea when his low earth orbit shuttle was coming in fast with no braking system.

"I'm up for this if you are," Anton said encouragingly.

Adam nodded and Janus set the departure time for 0400 the next morning. That would give them time to intercept Page when he was about five hours off shore, and at least an hour away from any potential backup. Janus' image blinked a few times then disappeared, ending the communication. Dmitri still looked uneasy, but busied himself examining the plane and getting the equipment needed for the next day. Not wanting to let worry set in, Freya pulled up a chair besides Jie, who was busy identifying all the variables that would be at play the next day. Adam smiled a little as her eyes fixed on his keystrokes and protocols, trying to absorb every bit of information she could. It was rather impressive how serious she could be when it came to technology and hacking. She would ask a question here and there and one of Jie's red optical lenses would swivel to look at her as he answered, the other still focused on the screens. It almost reminded Adam of a chameleon.

Jensen felt a tap on his shoulder and followed after Anton, who downed the rest of his own cup of coffee, rinsed it, and left it beside the sink in the kitchen. The rest of the day passed in a blur as Adam and Anton went over the schematics for the plane and various contingency plans. What they would do if the cable partially detached. If either plane went down. If Page called for backup. By the time evening came around, Adam was really starting to miss his apartment and that bottle of whiskey.

"Tired, bratan?" asked Anton, rolling up several blueprints that Jie had printed for them earlier of the jet streams over the Pacific. They had been examining the various locations that Janus had picked as possible intercept points where turbulence would be the lowest.

"You could say that," he said, pulling a cyberboost bar out of his left pocket and tearing it open, biting off half of it. Anton took the other half out of Adam's hand and set it on the table dismissively.

"Please, save that shit for tomorrow. You might need it. Dmitri'll cook us all up something nice. In the meantime…" he started, reaching into the back of a file cabinet drawers behind the folders and withdrawing a bottle of Russian vodka and two shot glasses, "…let's toast to the end of the day."

Adam grinned and took one of the thick glasses into his hand, noticing the numerous scratches that made the once completely clear material nearly opaque. Anton filled each glass with precisely one and a half ounces and set the vodka bottle aside.

"Pojexali!" he shouted triumphantly, hoisting the small glass high without spilling a drop.

Adam lifted his drink, "Pojexali." He wasn't sure what it meant, but he presumed something good spirited. As they emptied their glasses, Anton gestured for the two of them to move to the kitchen from which delicious savory aromas were beginning to emanate. Anton made sure not to leave the vodka or the shot glasses behind – he clearly meant the night to be a celebration. Upon entering the room, Jensen saw Freya and Shivana seated around the table, closely followed by Jie who had just started several tracers running on orbiting satellites. There was a free seat beside Freya which Adam took while Anton grabbed another handful of shot glasses and set them in front of each person at the table. He left one sitting in the last open spot for Dmitri, who was busy sautéing Kielbasa and onions on the stove.

"Everything going alright?" Adam commed Freya silently. As he retracted his sunglasses, he looked in her direction, letting her see his eyes clearly.

"Yeah, just trying to pick up some tricks from Jie. I doubt I'll be much use tomorrow but I'll be right beside him here watching the show," she answered, anxiously rotating the shot glass in front of her back and forth between her fingers. Freya felt the gentle pressure of his hand on her knee, squeezing reassuringly. His thumb gently massaged back and forth and he smiled slightly, "I'm glad to know you'll still be my guardian angel."

She paused in rotating the glass and caught her breath as he started sliding his palm up along the inside of her thigh over her loose slacks. Freya tried not to let her excitement reflect in her face and ducked her chin down shyly. She'd been craving his touch all day but with everything that was going on, it seemed like a silly thing to think about. They were all fugitives from the most dangerous, influential people on the planet and in the midst of planning an attack. Like they had said last night, this had become bigger than Adam, or the two of them. _Even so, _she thought to herself, her hand gripping around his bicep as he teased her, _what's the point of fighting if you don't have someone to fight for?_ The moment ended when he abruptly withdrew upon Anton coming over to pour everyone a round, but not without Adam casting her a playful smirk.

"To Dmitri's cooking!" Anton said cheerfully, oblivious to them.

Freya smiled and tried to drink her glass as fast as everyone else at the table but, it took her two swallows to get the burning liquid down her throat. She was used to leisurely sipping on her alcohol. With that, Dmitri brought over some fresh borscht, kielbasa and onions for their meal. Before eating, Anton poured a second round for everyone, which Freya again politely accepted and drank down more easily this time.

"Russians," Adam commed her silently, sitting closer to her on the bench.

She chuckled at his comment and felt her cheeks reddening already from the alcohol. The meal was surprisingly good, and filled with more toasts later on. By the time she had finished the soup, her head was swimming and she tried to follow the conversation going on between Shivana and Anton. By now, Adam's arm had dropped down around her waist and his fingers were playing with the hem of her pants. After a few drinks, he was a lot less concerned about concealing signs of affection.

"I still can't believe I have to stay here, while you get to ride along for all the glory," Shivana said, disgruntled.

"Hey, Janus makes the rules, not me," Anton said, holding his hands up.

Shivana rolled her eyes and stuffed a piece of sausage into her mouth, "It's all a big boy's club." She chewed noisily, nudging Freya. "I'm glad we have another woman, finally. No offense, guys."

"None taken," Jie chimed in. "Let me say it is a pleasure to have you here, Freya Pritchard. Someone else besides Janus who can appreciate the beauty of my bits."

Freya felt her face grow even more crimson as everyone cheered again. Laughing, Anton poured the remainder of that bottle of vodka evenly among the glasses on the table and they shared a final toast. With that, it seemed the group was at last ready to disperse for the night. It wouldn't be long before morning came and they would have to prepare for the mission.

As they walked back to their room, Adam helped keep Freya upright with his arm around her waist. She was brimming with contentedness, leaning against him as they rounded the hall and entered their doorway. One of her arms was around him and the other was holding onto the fabric over his chest, swinging slightly as they moved forward. Once they were out of sight in the room, she closed the door behind them and pulled herself up towards him. Her fingers found their way up his neck, into his short brown hair, and surprised him when she brought him down into a deep kiss. Adam hadn't yet activated his alcohol detoxification nanites so his reflexes were a little delayed.

"I've been waiting hours to do that," she whispered, her lips dancing against his mouth as she spoke. It only made him pause for a second before he eagerly responded, his hands quickly sliding up along her hips and over the smooth skin of her lower back. Adam savored the seductive curve of her spine as he brought her a few paces over to the mattress, lips still locked on hers. The covers were in disarray from the morning but he threw her down nonetheless. He trailed his kisses along her shoulder, sliding her shirt over her head and cupping her bare breasts in his hands. In the alcohol-induced delirium, Adam felt like he could easily just melt into her – her velvety warm flesh, the intensely feminine aroma as he buried his face in her neck and hair, the faint sweet smell of vodka.

As he touched her, her amorous moans and body quivers heightened his desire. Driven onward by her hands trailing desirously along his back and chest, he pulled her clothing away, not stopping until he was immersed completely inside her. He heard her gasp close to his ear and felt her arms and legs pull him tightly to her. As he caressed her, he felt her hips rhythmically moving against him and matched her, thrusting until he fell against her in their final climax. Her body folded around him as they savored the last moments, connected in bliss. Sleepiness was rapidly setting in and, spent, Adam rested his head against her round supple breasts. Freya smiled and cradled his head in her arms, still dizzy from ecstasy and drowsiness. His last thought as he drifted asleep with her was of how much he did not want to leave those arms. He didn't want to think about tomorrow, or Bob Page, or the Illuminati. Was such a simple wish, to remain in the throes of happiness with a woman he adored, too much to ask of the world?


	7. Chapter 7

Jensen was sitting in full tactical gear across from Anton in the small plane. They had caught up on a few hours of sleep en route, but now they were nearly within range of Page over the Pacific Ocean. They had gone over the sequence of events several times with Janus, who was watching carefully from headquarters along with Jie and Freya. The cable that Jensen was to use to reach the other plane was already securely bolted onto the frame of the craft just inside the side door.

"Jensen, you ready back there?" asked Dmitri. "Janus is about to throw the switch."

"We're ready," he said in his usual gravelly tone.

Janus's distorted voice came in over the comms, "On T-minus three, I will jam all satellite and aerial communications within a 50 mile radius of Page's private transport. You will have two hours to get to him and obtain the information we need before we'll have to worry about any hostile company. Hopefully you'll be long gone by then."

"On three then," Adam answered, ready to get underway.

"Okay. 3…2…1…engage."

Dmitri immediately gunned the thrusters and the craft shot forward faster than Adam knew it could go. It wasn't long before he could spot a fairly large private luxury jet up ahead. Across the side, he saw the logo of Versalife painted in black on white. He clenched the side of the door more tightly – his nerves finally making an appearance. A few moments later, he heard Janus's voice come through the comms again.

"Prepare for flight sync."

Adam watched Dmitri piloting the ship closer, and suddenly he backed off from the steering. It was holding steady. On the display, their ship and Page's were each represented by a small blue square along a curved trajectory. Both were inching along at the same rate, on the same route.

"Okay, we're set and just got down to 15,000 feet," Anton said, heading over to the hatch release. Once they secured themselves to the plane, Anton popped up the side door. The wind howled across deafeningly and swept in. Were they not tethered, they would have undoubtedly been pulled outside. Adam equilibrated to the new forces and peered out the doorway. Across about three hundred feet, Jensen could see the rear of Page's jet. Aiming carefully with the mounted cable hook, he used his enhanced optics to target just above the cargo hatch. When it was perfectly zeroed in, he released the trigger and the hook shot straight across to hit its mark. After testing it a few times to ensure it was properly lodged into the other plane, Anton helped hook Jensen onto the cable trolley. He slapped Jensen on the shoulder a couple times when he was set up.

"Remember to disengage the cable when you reach the other side. Good luck, bratan!"

Adam nodded and kicked off away from the plane across the cable barely suspending him above the 15,000 foot drop to the waves below. The second he was outside the plane, a torrent of wind slammed into him. It pushed him so far he was nearly upside down for a moment, before he settled into a 45-degree position away from vertical. His optics had a timer ticking down in the upper right to let him know how long before he was estimated to make landing on the other craft. Even with the time clearly displayed down to the millisecond, the trip still felt like it took minutes, rather than seconds. Moments before landing he braced himself and managed to collide in a somewhat controlled fashion. In front of him was a three foot by three feet foot hatch and a yellow lever that would pop it open.

"You make it okay?" Anton commed him.

"Yeah, yeah," he answered, pulling the handle. The square cover flew open and holding carefully to the inside frame, Adam detached the cable from above it. It retracted at lightning speed, grazing his shoulder and leaving a deep gash in the top of his augment. _Geez, if that had been flesh I probably wouldn't have an arm anymore…_ He tested the prosthetic limb out carefully and it didn't seem to have any functional impairment, but it annoyed him all the same. Accepting it as an aesthetic casualty, he quickly ducked into the square entryway and pulled the hatch cover over it behind him.

Jensen now found himself on a white incline with gray rough ridges, likely to keep bags from sliding down while they were loaded. Ahead of him he saw stacks of luggage, but also metal crates with Versalife logos imprinted on the sides. At the far left corner of the compartment there was a ladder that led to a hatch likely opening into the floor of the cabin. He scanned and only saw four life signs – two were sitting just above him, one was at the far end in the cockpit, and another was pacing down the center. He suspected the center man was Page.

Adam watched the signals above him for a few minutes to see if they would move aside, but they seemed planted in place. Time was ticking – he knew he didn't have the option of waiting quietly forever. _No time like the present…_

Jensen turned the lever on the hatch and pushed it up rapidly, knocking one of the men aside as the other shouted out in alarm. He found himself in a narrow hall at the end of the plane where the lavatories and kitchen materials were, along with two armed security guards – one on either side of him. Adam swept the nearest man's leg, followed by deftly striking him in the chest towards the ground. The man groaned and Adam turned to the second, who had withdrawn a weapon and was bringing it level with him. Before he could fire off a shot, Adam struck his outstretched arm with a well-placed roundhouse kick and sent the gun flying. He grabbed the man's arm and pulled him into a backhand head strike, which produced an audible crunch.

Adam dropped the unconscious guard and turned toward the signal he had seen in the center of the cabin. Unlike typical planes with rows of tightly packed seats on either side, Page's private plane had oak-finished lounge chairs with white leather cushions and couches along the walls. Past the first pair of recliners, beside an elegant desk on the left side of the plane, there stood a tall stoic figure in a dark gray suit. The man was facing away and had just taken a drag from a cigarette, which he tapped on the edge of an abalone shell ashtray on the desk beside a silver briefcase.

"Adam Jensen. I was wondering when you would find me," mused a confident tenor voice with crisp enunciation.

Adam approached a little further then paused as Page turned leisurely around, bringing the cigarette back up to his lips. Coming down from his slicked back hairline was a pencil-thin line of metal which reached just above his left eyebrow. Cerebral augmentations. Adam thought he almost saw a reddish reflection in Page's pupils but it was brief.

"Well, here I am. Now let's talk," Adam said, almost sarcastically.

"I imagine Janus put you up to this. I presumed as much when my communication lines went down. Only he would be able to pull that off. It interrupted a very important communication with a new colleague of mine – you might know her. Megan Reed," he said, grinning sharply and eyeing him for his reaction.

"Let's keep her out of it," said Adam, trying to change the subject. He started to get the feeling that Page had a CASIE implant. Jensen's own analysis was already running. So far he could tell the man was calculating, cunning, and above all patient. Jensen wouldn't be able to push him into an emotional corner. If he were able to use the intel that Janus had obtained, that perhaps Page's loyalty to the Illuminati was weakening, he might be able to get the information he needed.

"Well, then what would you like to talk about?" asked Page, his voice deceptively smooth.

"Let's start with White Helix." _If I make it seem just about me, he might be more forthcoming._

"Ah yes. Your beginning," he said, moving around the desk. He paused and politely asked, "Do you mind if I sit?"

The corner of Adam's lips tightened, but he nodded, "By all means."

"White Helix achieved what it set out to do – create the means for supercompatibility. The next step was to isolate the sequence and develop an effective gene therapy to insert it into anyone's genetic code…but as you've discovered, a few of the scientists had grown attached to the test subject, and wanted to protect you. Once the project burned down, my associates scrapped it. They were afraid of what the breakthrough could mean."

"Why didn't you just track me down and haul me away to a lab?" asked Adam, taking a few more steps in Page's direction.

"The others didn't want me to pursue it. Of course, that didn't stop me. I found out where you were easily enough, but after that it was a matter of…making sure all the pieces were in the right place. Do you remember the Versalife Fundraiser you attended while you were still with SWAT?" Page asked slyly, taking his time and pacing his words with steady emphasis.

"Of course, that's where Megan and I first…" Jensen stopped speaking when he realized what Page was suggesting, but he couldn't believe it. "Are you saying you set all of that up? Megan was working for you this whole time?"

"Please," Page said, tilting his head back, "it was far more nuanced than that. She did not know I was involved, but the right people made sure the two of you met. I already knew of her research and promise – Darrow had told me so much about her. I wanted you to be accessible to her when the timing was right for her to make the breakthrough I had dreamed of years ago. When I had secured my place in the Illuminati, all I had to do was send her a little anonymous tip, and the rest is history."

_Once again, my life has just been a joke to these men pulling the strings. Of course it was more than a coincidence that the subject with the specially designed genetic code was at arm's length from the only scientist really qualified to make use of it. It was all orchestrated. All of it. Ah, fuck. Stay focused, Adam._ He scolded himself, trying not to let the revelation derail the entire plan. He still had to get Page to talk. _Maybe I can use this to my advantage._

"So you did all this to keep your true motivations hidden from your own associates? Doesn't really sound like you guys are playing for the same team…" Jensen said, trying to turn the conversation back in the direction he wanted even though his blood was still boiling.

"We started out fine, but after all these years, I do believe I've outgrow them. Taggart and Everett are cowards. Trying to stop human evolution is like holding onto a runaway train with your bare hands. Either you'll be pulled with it or you'll fly right off into the dark wilderness, but there's no stopping or slowing that train. And I intend to be the one driving it," he said, a knowing smile creeping across his face.

Jensen would have to tread carefully here. He could feel Page was close to telling him what he needed, but he had to be careful. If he attacked too much, Page would pick up on his true objective and his secrets would be inaccessible, locked behind those steely eyes.

"What, so are you planning on staging a coup? It'll be hard to do that with Everett in charge, seems like he probably has tabs on everything you do," Adam said daringly, hoping Page's pride would spur him to make a slip.

"If you think Everett's the leader of the Illuminati, I'm afraid you've been terribly misinformed. Not that Everett isn't aspiring to that – he doesn't let Lucius out of his sights. He's practically self-appointed himself the man's protégé," Page spat, sparing no amount of disdain for the man.

"Lucius?" asked Adam, hoping Janus had picked up that information and was cross-checking it.

"Yes, Mr. Lucius DeBeers. He's far beyond your circles. I doubt you would know him, but he's quite a powerful man in his own right. But come now, I'm sure you don't actually find all this chatter interesting," Page said, reaching in front of him to the brief case and opening the side locks. The case popped open, the ridged reflective lid blocking the contents from Adam's view.

In a stunningly fast blur, Page withdrew a device from the briefcase and shot it at Adam, hitting him just below his right collarbone between two of his organic ribs. Jensen took a step back, lifting up his revolver to return fire, but felt an odd sensation. The sensors in his chest weren't picking up a bullet impact, but rather a syringe. He pulled the needle out and examined it quizzically, noticing an odd tingling in his augment as he held it between his fingers. The strange sensation seemed to be spreading through his chest and into his arms. _Get out of there._

While he still had his wits about him, his optics scanned the walls for an escape hatch. He couldn't understand why but his arms and legs weren't coordinating properly, and he staggered to the wall behind him on the right. As Adam reached for the yellow lever, his neck started aching painfully.

"Give Janus my regards!" shouted Page, laughing maniacally behind him.

The moment Adam pulled the hatch down, the pressure difference swept him out of the plane and into the atmosphere. His optics stuttered as he fell, the sun a blinding sphere in the sky zipping across his field of vision. He couldn't make any sense of where the horizon was as he tumbled down and the sun streaked vertically, horizontally, obliquely. The pain in his neck started rising into his skull, pounding worse than anything he'd experienced before. His internal gyroscope wasn't activating, and as he lost consciousness due to the vertigo and pain, he realized there was also nothing slowing his descent towards the ocean below.


	8. Chapter 8

Freya and Jie were following the video footage of Adam on the plane, eager to get their first look at Bob Page in the flesh. They didn't comm in to him, for fear it would distract him from the careful interrogation. When Page mentioned Lucius DeBeers, Jie lit up and immediately began looking up the information. He seemed to recognize the name. Freya watched the screens intently - it looked like DeBeers was a wealthy Englishman, with a wide range of companies and global interests, but he currently resided in Geneva, Switzerland.

As Jie investigated, Freya's attention was drawn back to Adam's video feed. He was looking down at an odd syringe in his fingers and then started staggering away.

"Jie, what's going on? Anton, Dmitri, Adam needs your help," Freya commed.

"What's going on?" Anton asked, indicating for Dmitri to bring the plane closer. They had backed off after Adam made contact to avoid drawing attention and once he had safely landed in the ocean, they would pick him up. At least that had been the original plan.

"Page hit Adam with some kind of dart, I don't know what it had in it but he's…" her breath stopped as Adam threw open the plane's side hatch and began plummeting to the ocean. "He's falling, his Icarus System isn't activating!"

Janus's voice interjected, "Anton, you won't be able to reach him in time. I'll try to activate his augment remotely." For once, Freya thought she could hear a hint of urgency in that computerized voice.

Adam's screen was a confusing vision in free fall, going black with more frequency as he seemed to be losing consciousness.

"Adam, can you hear me?" she commed desperately, leaning over the keyboard and tightly clenching the top edge until her fingers ached. His visual feed had gone black, so he was completely unconscious, but it looked like the descent of his GPL was slowing – Janus must have gotten the landing system to kick in at least a little.

"Freya, I'm coming up on his location – Janus managed to slow him down in the last couple hundred meters," Anton informed her.

Jie switched the video source to Anton and they saw the plane lowering itself until it was nearly touching the water below. Anton threw a line towards Adam who was floating on his side, waves crashing over him haphazardly. As he pulled him on board, Freya could have almost believed Adam was just sleeping – his face was calm and there wasn't a single stray mark on him, aside from a small red spot below his clavicle where he was hit by the syringe.

"We've got a pulse," Anton reported, "and he's breathing. What the fuck happened?"

"Page hit him with something, a tranquilizer dart maybe, but he shouted something like 'Give my regards to Janus,' so I don't know…" Freya explained, starting to feel relieved but unable to ignore the uneasy feeling in the back of her mind.

The next hours were painfully tense. Jie was focused on obtaining information about DeBeer's companies to see which one might be a good candidate for housing the data controls on Eliza. It would have to be a facility that drew energy levels comparable to the Hyron Project. Meanwhile, Freya was sitting back and watching Anton's feed for any change in Adam's status. As they entered Russian airspace, she saw him stirring uncomfortably and eyes barely opening.

"…Freya?" she heard his words over Anton's feed, not through the comms.

"Adam, I'm here. Are you okay?" she commed, encouraged that he was awake and speaking.

"Freya, are you there?" he asked again. Freya realized somehow his infolink was not working.

Anton chimed in, "Rest easy, Adam, we've got you. She's waiting back at HQ. Did we get any useful information out of Page?"

Freya answered, "Yes, it sounds like Lucius DeBeers is the man running the operation. Jie is tracking down possible locations of the last data filter. How is Adam doing?"

"Well he's coming to, but Christ bratan, you're burning up," Anton remarked as he touched Adam's skin while pulling him up to one of the seats in the transport.

"Janus, are you able to pull any vitals off of him?" she asked the void, since she had no way to specifically comm Janus, but assumed he was monitoring all their communications.

"Most of his systems are offline, I can't get any information to or from his neural chip. There's something interfering with the interface…that's why his Icarus System didn't activate on its own."

When he said the word interface, an icy chill rose up Freya's spine. She didn't want to suggest something so awful, because it could be devastating, but she had to say it.

"Janus…what if that injection contained the experimental substance, SLK-109? That we saw at Versalife headquarters?" she looked closer at the skin connecting to Jensen's arm augments and thought she saw a faint hint of redness.

"That's impossible, a virus couldn't work that fast …" Janus remarked, but without conviction.

"If it's concentrated enough it could be acting like a toxin and inducing complete system shutdown…not to mention this is one of the first viruses chimerified with nanites. There's no way to know how it would behave in any quantity, much less when concentrated…" Freya bit her lip and was thankful that Adam couldn't hear what she was saying.

Janus seemed to pause before answering, "I hate to consider it but you're right. It is a possibility we cannot ignore. Shivana, Freya, I'll need you both to set up an area in the hangar for Adam, Anton and Dmitri. If they've been exposed, all of you are at risk."

Freya nodded and tore herself away from the screens, trusting Jie to keep her apprised of any changes in Adam's status. She ran into Shivana, who had already heard the instructions from Janus and was carrying rolls of plastic sheets. Previously the plastic covers had been used back in storage, but there was enough footage to make three separate holding areas. They had to affix them to light poles and the wall to make three additional sides to create sectioned off spaces. Shivana easily brought up the mattresses and was placing the third one inside the last section when she and Freya heard the hum of the VTOL approaching the hangar.

"Freya, Shivana, this is critical – you must not approach Adam, Anton, or Dmitri until they are safely inside the quarantine. I've already informed them about the plan," Janus's voice instructed them.

Freya clenched her jaw and crossed her arms tightly around herself as she watched the plane set down tens of meters away. She was standing on the balls of her feet, as if ready to spring forward – the only thing holding her back was willpower. From the side hatch, Adam and Anton emerged, while Dmitri stayed in the cockpit to power down the craft. Anton was holding Adam's arm over his shoulder and helping him towards the makeshift quarantine zone. His legs were struggling to put one augmented foot in front of the other – it was as if the leg prosthetics had suddenly become useless dead weights. As they drew nearer, Adam buckled over and forced them to stop, suddenly vomiting fresh blood onto the concrete.

Before Freya could start running forward, she already felt Shivana's silver arms come around her shoulders and torso to restrain her.

"Adam!" Freya cried, both resisting and drawing support from Shivana's tight hold on her. She tightened her fists against Shivana's knees, pushing futilely against her as tears came to her eyes. She had never felt more helpless. _Adam, what have they done to you?_

Adam seemed to hear her and his head turned towards her painfully, his free arm hanging limply beside him. She thought she caught his eyes straining to see her, but Anton pulled him onward and let him go on one of the cordoned off mattresses before seating himself in the adjacent one. Finally Dmitri left the plane and took his place in the third section. Shivana let Freya go and she rushed to the thick plastic sheet that separated Adam from them. She could barely see through the blurry divider, but was able to pick out his figure huddled against itself on the bed, coughing up more blood.

"Adam, I'm here," she said, her fingers lightly touching the slick artificial surface.

He moaned in agony, "Ugh...Freya, what's…happening?" He held his head tightly as it pounded more fiercely and he tried to ignore the salty taste of blood and stomach acid in his mouth.

"You might have been infected with the substance we found at Versalife. You'll need to stay in there until we know for sure, or at least until you get better," Freya said, choking on her words. She wanted to say something reassuring, but nothing was coming to mind. In the section beside Adam's, Freya heard a loud grimace and saw Anton's figure pacing and holding his skull.

"Anton, talk to me, tell me what's going on," asked Shivana, who was standing just outside his quarters. Her normally jovial and relaxed countenance was ablaze, especially her eyes. Freya couldn't tell whether she was more furious or concerned or both. Like Freya, she probably didn't even know how to sort things out. _It's probably worse for her since she's so strong_, Freya pondered, _and she can usually do something about a problem, but not this time._

"I don't know, I've just got this splitting headache and feel sick to my stomach, and I'm sweating like a pig," he said, coming closer to the barrier.

"Well geez, when you put it like that…I'm glad I'm out here and you're in there," she tried to keep a lighter tone. "Are your augments still working?" Shivana continued.

"Well, my optical display is still functioning, but…I tried comming you guys a moment ago and I didn't get any response from either of you. Whatever Adam got…did any of the files mention the mortality rate?"

"Anton, come on, do you really want to know?" Shivana said quietly, knowing that whatever the answer was, it couldn't be good.

"Goddamnit, Shiv, we at least deserve to know what our chances are! If I'm fucked either way, you might as well bring me all the vodka we've got and I'll finish it myself," he shouted angrily, driven as much by fear as the gradually increasing level of pain he was experiencing.

Shivana stepped back, visibly unnerved by Anton's tone, "Yes, of course, we'll go find out what Jie has discovered. Maybe Dr. Kavanaugh has some experience with this as well."

Freya started to leave but felt Adam press his hand against the plastic near her, the edge brushing her ankle as he groped blindly. "Wait, Freya..." he uttered, the tone of his voice dangerously close to pleading.

She cut him off before he could say anything else, "Don't worry, Adam, I won't go anywhere." She sat and pressed against the plastic where his prosthetic hand was, but the fingers didn't respond.

"Are you there?" he asked, still not receiving sensation from his augments.

As much as she'd fought them earlier, she finally felt tears overflow her eyes. She answered, her tone brighter to try to hide the crying, "Yes, always. Is there anything we can get you?"

"Water would be great," he said, regaining a little of his usual self. The more he heard her voice, the more at ease he felt despite the constant crescendo of pain shooting through his body. Each breath was agony, and he was now consciously fighting the desire to throw up again. The last time he felt even close to this miserable was when he was in the operating suite after the accident, with his arms and legs severed and his eyes deactivated. But that time he was alone, without anyone for him to lean on except the unfeeling company surgeons. He sat with his back against the plastic. The skin of his torso was still able to sense pressure and temperature, and the warmth of her hands pressing on his shoulders through the sheet was helping him gather his thoughts.

"I just told Shivana to get some," Freya assured him, sitting down so her back was propped against his. She rested her head back onto the curve where his shoulder was, fighting the urge to tear the barrier down and take her chances. Just to be able to hold him and give him whatever support she could. Wiping her cheeks, she took a deep breath and tried to reassure herself that it might not be so bad. There was no reason he couldn't beat this thing, as bad as things looked now. In a bit, Dr. Kavanaugh and Shivana's steps were echoing up the staircase, with Shivana carrying boxes of water containers and other supplies.

"Okay, we have some good news, and some bad news," started Shivana, handing one of the water jugs to Dr. Kavanaugh.

The petite brunette scientist took it awkwardly and, collecting herself, started, "Well, based on the data you all collected, it's…about 80% fatal. That's in normal augmented test subjects. It's not airborne, but it is passed in body fluids such as blood and saliva, even sweat. It doesn't seem to cause disease in people without augments, and there's no knowing what effect it will have in you, Adam – it could be better, or it could be far worse."

"Well," Adam said, coughing and wiping his mouth on his shoulder since he couldn't lift his arms, "right now, it seems worse."

"Right," said Dr. Kavanaugh, a little shaken, "but you got a concentrated dose. No matter what, you were going to get the worst of it."

"Great," Adam said grimly.

"Now, I'm not augmented, so it should be safe for me to go inside and help them. It would be great if my partner Gary were here. He knows all about nanite viruses, but I do have a little knowledge from what we discussed back at the RBS," she said, stepping inside Adam's partition. The New Zealander approached and brought the jug of water up to his lips. As the water hit his stomach he already felt a little relief from the nausea, but he still couldn't lift his arm to steady to container so she waited for him to indicate he had drunk enough. She briefly examined him and felt his pulse, which she measured at his neck.

"Can you see anything?" she asked. He could feel her fingers pushing on his eyebrows and lower eyelid, but no visual signals were being sent.

"Nothing. Are my eyes even open?"

"They are. But I'm not seeing any signs of erosion yet, which is good. The course of the illness is typically over 48 hours, so if you're starting to do better in another 12-24 hours, or at least aren't getting worse, you should make some kind of recovery. I can't predict what functions will return, though. You're fortunate that your body doesn't usually build up glial scarring around augments due to your unique genetics, but there's no telling what this virus will do," she said, avoiding any language that would be falsely encouraging.

He was still up against harrowing odds, and they had little to no equipment that could be of use. They had no way to try to develop a vaccine or antiserum, minimal medications beyond basic first aid, no laboratory. To take him to a hospital would mean exposing the general population and risking an outbreak, so they were on their own in every sense.

"Hey, Kavanaugh, I could use a little water in here too," Anton said, tapping on the plastic wall separating him and Adam.

"I'll be right in," she said, stepping out and leaving one of the jugs in there along with an empty bucket for Adam to use as a waste bin. When she entered the section with Anton, carrying a fresh jug of water, she stopped in her steps. Even though Adam looked overall worse off, the skin around the circular cerebral enhancements on Anton's face was developing a bruised appearance. The two metallic nodes beneath his chin were surrounded by a thin border of raw, erythematous tissue. At least the sites where Adam's augments connected to his body had looked relatively unscathed, and he had been exposed for longer.

"Do I look that bad?" Anton asked, half coughing, half laughing into his elbow. He frowned when he saw a faint speckling of red on his sleeve.

"I'm sure you've had worse," Kavanaugh said encouragingly, handing him the water jug since he was capable of holding it himself.

After he sated his thirst, he wiped his lips and gestured at Adam, asking quietly, "How's he doing?"

"Could be worse, but could be better. It hit him hard and fast due to the dosage. Even though he's lost communication to his augments, it doesn't look like it's started attacking the tissue complexes. I suspect the virus focuses on regions of active glial tissue buildup, but the body's toxic immune response is what's killing him right now," she explained, examining Anton's eyes and his cerebral implants more closely. She measured the degree of tissue damage and made a few quick scribbles on her pocket notebook.

"I'll check back in twelve hours or so. Anything I can bring you?"

"I suppose an e-reader and some food. Maybe a cyberboost bar would help?" he asked unsurely, looking for something encouraging in her eyes but not finding it.

"It certainly couldn't hurt – I'll bring some for Adam too," she said, heading out again. Dmitri hadn't shown any signs yet, so she wasn't about to go in and risk infecting him if he hadn't been exposed yet. As she left Anton's compartment, Shivana started approaching her but she immediately held her hands up.

"You'll want to stay a few feet away from me. Even though I'm not at risk, there's still a chance I could transmit the virus to you," Kavanaugh warned.

"How is he?" Shivana asked, following Kavanaugh down the stairwell. Freya heard something that sounded encouraging, but the look in Kavanaugh's eyes said the opposite. Darkly she wondered if Anton's CASIE was still functional. His infolink wasn't functioning so hopefully the rest wasn't. For his sake.

"Shivana," Freya commed, "can you bring my laptop up to me? Have Jie put everything about the SLK-109 on it."

"Sure," she said, "But I don't know if reading the details of the horrible things it did to test subjects will make you feel much better."

Freya shook her head. Perhaps it wouldn't do any good. Perhaps it would just make her feel worse. But it was better than simply sitting there while Adam suffered. She felt his stuttered breathing and occasional coughs throw him against her back. Every time she felt his body struggle against the effects of the infection, she wanted to say something or ask a question. She just swallowed and buried the words in the back of her mind. _He knows I'm here. That's all I can do for him right now. There's nothing to say._

As night fell, it grew dimmer in the hanger. The only light was being produced by her laptop screen and the generator-powered flood lamp. Anton had set the e-book aside – he couldn't focus enough to read it. The pain in his skull had grown even more in the last several hours. Shivana was maintaining a tense vigil beside her, trying to keep Anton talking. It was a stark contrast to Adam, who seemed to want to remain silent. Perhaps his collected, internal strength was the only thing keeping him from falling apart and to speak would break that concentration. He was so warm she almost worried he would melt through the plastic sheet between them. Every so often he leaned over to the bucket just as nausea overwhelmed him and followed it with a hearty swig of water and a bite from his cyberboost bar. Freya occasionally dared to look behind her at his silhouette and was relieved not to see any growing redness where his augment met his shoulder flesh. She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself as a frigid breeze swept through from across the dark countryside. It wouldn't be long until they would know what was in store for them, and she was counting the moments with each breath he took.


End file.
